Rice as food and medication in ancient and Byzantine medical literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Kokoszko ◽  
Krzysztof Jagusiak ◽  
Zofia Rzeźnicka

AbstractThe article discusses rice (ὄρυζα) on the basis of medical writings compiled between the first and seventh centuries, and consists of four parts. The first tries to assess the spread of rice in the Greco-Roman agriculture. The results of the analysis support conclusions present in the literature and confirm the fact that rice was never popular in the Mediterranean in antiquity and later during the period of early and middle Byzantium. A gradual change in its status appeared along with the Arab agricultural revolution. The second chapter of the study is devoted to dietetic characterizations of rice and enlists features attributed to it, which were consistently made use of in medical procedures. The third part of the study tries to retrieve from medical writings main culinary guidelines concerning rice. The authors conclude that the cereal usually was the basis for preparation of cooked dishes and was hardly ever used in baking. The fourth chapter enumerates medical procedures which included rice (cure of intestinal problems, hemorrhages, other ailments resulting in excessive excretion of fluids of the body, gout etc.).

Vox Patrum ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 297-329
Author(s):  
Maciej Kokoszko ◽  
Jolanta Dybała ◽  
Krzysztof Jagusiak ◽  
Zofia Rzeźnicka

The present article discusses one of the most important ingredients of the Syrian ascetic diet (from the beginning of the IVth to the mid Vth century) as de­scribed by Theodoret of Cyrus in his Historia religiosa, namely lentils (fakÒj). The basis of the research is constituted by ancient and byzantine medical trea­tises composed between the Ist and the VIIth centuries by Dioscurides, Galen, Oribasiusa, Aetius of Amida and Paul of Aegina. The aim of the article is to de­scribe the role of the legume and thereby opine on compatibility or incompatibil­ity of the monastic dietetic pattern with the one described by the medical doctors. First, the authors of the study try to show the importance of lentils as food across the area of the Mediterranean. Subsequently, they proceed to sketch its dietetic characteristics developed by ancient and Byzantine medical doctors and conclude that the evaluation was not fully appreciative of the foodstuff. Thirdly, the authors come to show applications of lentils in medical procedures, since both in Antiquity as well as in Byzantium the plant was considered to be a medicine. The discussion on lentils is concluded by introducing culinary uses of lentils, which abound in medical writings. The authors also note that all the preserved rec­ipes envisage the cooking of the food, i.e. a procedure which was usually avoided by the Syrian ascetics.


Ars Adriatica ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Marijana Kovačević

This paper paraphrases the first monographic study of the silver casket which was commissioned in the last quarter of the fourteenth century as a reliquary for the body of St Simeon in Zadar. The author of the monograph ‘The Silberschrein des S. Simeone in Zara’ is Alfréd Gotthold Meyer, an art historian from Berlin. The manuscript was written in German, translated into Hungarian and published in Budapest in 1894. Both the manuscript and the book are available only in a few copies in Croatia and this was one of the incentives for writing this article, apart from the need to introduce and evaluate one of the key works ever written on this important subject, and to do so in a more detailed manner than it had been done before. Meyer divided the material in five chapters. In the first chapter he deals with the traditions about the relic. The second chapter is a summary of the documents concerning the history of the silver casket. In the third chapter Meyer describes the reliefs on the casket and discusses their iconography, while in the fourth chapter he analyses them stylistically and attempts to reconstruct the original arrangement of particular reliefs. The final, fifth chapter is the most important part of this work, because it emphasizes comparisons between the Zadar casket and similar works in Italy and Dalmatia. The book has all the qualities of a scholarly text which is rather surprising for such an early date. Meyer pointed out a number of key notions about the supposedly different authors of particular reliefs, for example several master pieces of Italian painting and sculpture which may have inspired these authors, and he also noted the important seventeenth-century restoration on the casket. A. G. Meyer set very high scholarly standards with his work, which were rarely achieved in many subsequent publications on the casket, especially during the first half of the twentieth century.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Maciej Kokoszko ◽  
Krzysztof Jagusiak ◽  
Zofia Rzeźnicka

The present study discusses dietetic qualities of rice and culinary recipes pertaining to its preparation as demonstrated in ancient and Byzantine medical treatises compiled between 1st and 7th cent. A.D. (Dioscurides, Galen, Oribasius, Anthimus, Alexander of Tralles, Aetius of Amida and Paul of Aegina). The evidence (in the part touching on gastronomic applications of rice) also includes De re coquinaria attributed to Apicius. The article consists of three parts. The first analyzes sources and modern literature to assess the impact of rice on the Greco-Roman and Byzantine agriculture. The results of the analysis confirm the scholarly opinion that rice was never popular in the Mediterranean in the ancient and early Byzantine periods. A slow and gradual change in its status appeared along with the Arab agricultural revolution. The second chapter of the study is devoted to dietetic characterizations of rice and presents features attributed to the cereal over the ages. The authors come to the conclusion that the most frequent characteristics of the crop which appear in the analyzed sources are its indigestibility, unwholesomeness, astringency (styptic action) as well as the ability to slow down the work of the alimentary tract. The final part of the article tries to retrieve from medical and culinary writings main culinary guidelines according to which rice was prepared as food. The authors conclude that, as a rule, the cereal was not used for bread baking, though it is likely that it was utilized in making cakes. Rice usually was the basis for preparation thick, gruel-like dishes which were normally compared to chondros or poltos, less thick soups which were said to be similar to ptisane, and watery, thin concoctions called chyloi, created by diluting rice stock.


Author(s):  
Svetlana V. Shutova ◽  
Alina S. Segeda

We considered the current problem of determining pain sensitivity of different sections of the human body to find the most painless and safe zones for different medical procedures. The study involved 3 groups of students, 8 people in each group. In the first group were Russian boys, in the second – Russian girls, in the third – African girls aged 18–22 years. We carried out studies in 8 areas of the body, which are most often used in medicine for injecting: cheek, shoulder, forearm, wrist, underarm, shin behind (under the knee), iliac and gluteal areas. These areas are most commonly used for various medical procedures. We determined objective differences of sensitivity thresholds of different body sections. As the threshold increases (decrease in sensitivity), these are: underarm, forearm, iliac region, lower leg behind, gluteal region, shoulder. There were no pronounced sexual features of pain sensitivity among boys and girls 18–20 years old. We revealed ethnic features of skin sensitivity. The overall sensitivity of African students is higher than that of Russians. Taking into account the features of tactile and pain sensitivity will reduce the negative sensations of patients during pain-provoking procedures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (82) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eurelija Venskaitytė ◽  
Jonas Poderys ◽  
Tadas Česnaitis

Research  background  and  hypothesis.  Traditional  time  series  analysis  techniques,  which  are  also  used  for the analysis of cardiovascular signals, do not reveal the relationship between the  changes in the indices recorded associated with the multiscale and chaotic structure of the tested object, which allows establishing short-and long-term structural and functional changes.Research aim was to reveal the dynamical peculiarities of interactions of cardiovascular system indices while evaluating the functional state of track-and-field athletes and Greco-Roman wrestlers.Research methods. Twenty two subjects participated in the study, their average age of 23.5 ± 1.7 years. During the study standard 12 lead electrocardiograms (ECG) were recorded. The following ECG parameters were used in the study: duration of RR interval taken from the II standard lead, duration of QRS complex, duration of JT interval and amplitude of ST segment taken from the V standard lead.Research  results.  Significant  differences  were  found  between  inter-parametric  connections  of  ST  segment amplitude and JT interval duration at the pre and post-training testing. Observed changes at different hierarchical levels of the body systems revealed inadequate cardiac metabolic processes, leading to changes in the metabolic rate of the myocardium and reflected in the dynamics of all investigated interactions.Discussion and conclusions. It has been found that peculiarities of the interactions of ECG indices interactions show the exposure of the  functional changes in the body at the onset of the workload. The alterations of the functional state of the body and the signs of fatigue, after athletes performed two high intensity training sessions per day, can be assessed using the approach of the evaluation of interactions between functional variables. Therefore the evaluation of the interactions of physiological signals by using time series analysis methods is suitable for the observation of these processes and the functional state of the body.Keywords: electrocardiogram, time series, functional state.


Author(s):  
Labeeb Bsoul

This article aims to shed light on a particular area in the field of Islamic International law (siyar) treaty in Islamic jurisprudence. It addresses a comparative view of classical jurists of treaties both theoretically and historically and highlights their continued relevance to the contemporary world. Since the concept of treaty a lacuna in scholarship as well as the familiar of international legal theorists to study and integrate the Islamic treaty system into the body of modern international law in order to have a mutual understanding and respect and honor for treaties among nations. I would like to present a series of three parts the first one addresses the concept of treaty in Islamic jurisprudence the second addresses the process of drafting treaties and their conclusion and the third addresses selected treaties, including the treaty of H{udaybiya that took place between Muslims and non-Muslims..


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Redacción CEIICH

<p class="p1">The third number of <span class="s1"><strong>INTER</strong></span><span class="s2"><strong>disciplina </strong></span>underscores this generic reference of <em>Bodies </em>as an approach to a key issue in the understanding of social reality from a humanistic perspective, and to understand, from the social point of view, the contributions of the research in philosophy of the body, cultural history of the anatomy, as well as the approximations queer, feminist theories and the psychoanalytical, and literary studies.</p>


Author(s):  
Marion Heinz
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  

The chapter presents a synthetic account of the young Herder’s metaphysics and epistemology, based on several short pieces from the 1760s, with the intention of bringing into relief their strikingly systematic and coherent nature. The objective is to give the reader a greater sense of the philosophical depth of Herder’s anthropology. The first section examines God’s relationship to the world he creates. The second turns to the analogous relationship, based on interaction, between the soul and the body it builds for itself. And in the third, we bring this all together in order to understand how the embodied soul, through engagement with the world, obtains knowledge, and acquires its identity as a historical-cultural being.


Author(s):  
Nora Goldschmidt ◽  
Barbara Graziosi

The Introduction sheds light on the reception of classical poetry by focusing on the materiality of the poets’ bodies and their tombs. It outlines four sets of issues, or commonplaces, that govern the organization of the entire volume. The first concerns the opposition between literature and material culture, the life of the mind vs the apprehensions of the body—which fails to acknowledge that poetry emerges from and is attended to by the mortal body. The second concerns the religious significance of the tomb and its location in a mythical landscape which is shaped, in part, by poetry. The third investigates the literary graveyard as a place where poets’ bodies and poetic corpora are collected. Finally, the alleged ‘tomb of Virgil’ provides a specific site where the major claims made in this volume can be most easily be tested.


Author(s):  
Paul Brooker ◽  
Margaret Hayward

The Armani high-fashion example illustrates the importance of adaptive rational methods in his founding and developing of an iconic high-fashion firm. Armani adapted stylistically to fashion’s new times in the 1970–80s by creating a new style catering for the career woman. His stylistic adaptation is compared with that of another famous Italian fashion designer, Versace, who instead modernized haute couture fashion and created a succession of glamourous styles. Both leaders exploited the same opportunity but in different ways. The third section compares these leaders’ legacies in the 1990s–2000s and assesses from a long-term perspective how capably they had used adaptive rational methods. The final section shifts the focus from fashion to the cosmetics industry and from Italy to the UK. Anita Roddick used adaptive rational methods to establish The Body Shop corporation in the 1970s–80s. However, she then abandoned rational methods with dire results for her corporation in the 1990s.


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