scholarly journals The Usage of Ergot (Claviceps purpurea (fr.) Tul.) in Obstetrics and Gynecology: A Historical Perspective

Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Aleksander Smakosz ◽  
Wiktoria Kurzyna ◽  
Michał Rudko ◽  
Mateusz Dąsal

In the past centuries consumption of bread made of ergot-infected flour resulted in mass poisonings and miscarriages. The reason was the sclerotia of Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tul.—a source of noxious ergot alkaloids (ergotamine and ergovaline). The authors have searched the 19th century medical literature in order to find information on the following topics: dosage forms of drugs based on ergot and their application in official gynecology and obstetrics. The authors also briefly address the relevant data from the previous periods as well as the 20th century research on ergot. The research resulted in a conclusion that applications of ergot in gynecology and obstetrics in the 19th century were limited to controlling excessive uterine bleeding and irregular spasms, treatment of fibrous tumors of the uterus, and prevention of miscarriage, abortion, and amenorrhoea. The most common dosage forms mentioned in the works included in our review were the following: tinctures, water extracts (Wernich’s and Squibb’s watery extract of ergot), pills, and powders. The information documented in this paper will be helpful for further research and helpful in broadening the understanding of the historical application of the described controversial crude drugs. Ergot alkaloids were widely used in obstetrics, but in modern times they are not used in developed countries anymore. They may, however, play a significant role in developing countries where, in some cases, they can be used as an anti-hemorrhage agent during labor.

Asian Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-109
Author(s):  
Maria Paola CULEDDU

The term bushidō is widespread today and involves history, philosophy, literature, ­sociology and religion. It is commonly believed to be rooted in the ancient “way” of the bushi or samurai, the Japanese warriors who led the country until modern times. However, even in the past the bushi were seldom represented accurately. Mostly, they were depicted as the authors thought they should be, to fulfil a certain role in society and on the political scene.By taking into account some ancient and pre-modern writings, from the 8th to the 19th centuries, from the ancient chronicles of Japan, war tales, official laws, letters, to martial arts manuals and philosophical essays, and by highlighting some of the bushidō values, this article attempts to answer the questions how and why the representation of the bushi changed from the rise of the warrior class to the end of the military government in the 19th century.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Leonarda Dacewicz ◽  

The customary division of functions and social roles of men and women adopted in the past was reflected in the process of shaping the Polish anthroponymic system. The phenomenon of differentiation of nomenclature based on gender was directly related to the privileged position and exclusive participation of men in the organization of social life. In anthroponymy, the domination of masculinity is marked by the functional expansion of male forms as primary and basic. Male nomenclature was higher listed in the hierarchy of importance, female forms of surnames were always created from male forms. The surnames of married women were ending with the suffixes -owa, -ina, -ska or -a, e.g. Chodkiewiczowa, Niemierzyna, Popławska, Ladna. The surnames of unmarried women were created using the suffixes -ówna (ending in a consonant from scratch), e.g. Chodkiewiczówna (< Chodkiewicz), -anka (ending in a vowel from scratch), e.g. Niemierzanka (< Niemiera), and in adjective types like married surnames, for example, Popławska, Ładna. The subject of attention in this study is the phenomenon of masculinization of female surname forms during the Russian partition (second half of the 19th century) in the Podlasie region. The problem is presented in the context of the historical development of women’s nomenclature in Podlasie and general information on the state of female nomination in Poland in modern times.


Author(s):  
Marcelo Luiz Carvalho Gonçalves ◽  
Cassius Schnell ◽  
Luciana Sianto ◽  
Francoise Bouchet ◽  
Mathieu Le Bailly ◽  
...  

The identification of parasites in ancient human feces is compromised by differential preservation of identifiable parasite structures. However, protein molecules can survive the damage of the environment. It was possible to detected antigen of Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia duodenalis in historic and prehistoric human fecal remains using two enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) kits with monoclonal antibodies specific for E. histolytica and G. duodenalis, respectively. Specimens of desiccated feces and ancient latrine sediment from the New and the Old World were examined. The ELISA detected E. histolytica antigen in samples from Argentina, USA, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, dated to about 5300 years BP to the 19th Century AD. G. duodenalis antigen was detected in samples from USA, Belgium, and Germany, dated to about 1200 AD, 1600 AD, and 1700 AD. The detection of protozoan antigen using immunoassays is a reliable tool for the study of intestinal parasites in the past.


Author(s):  
Sergio Sabbatani ◽  
Luca Ansaloni ◽  
Massimo Sartelli ◽  
Federico Coccolini ◽  
Salomone Di Saverio ◽  
...  

Risk of infection remains a major concern for surgeons. The expansion of surgery towards the end of the 19th century determined a noticeable increase in septicemia and gangrene, and surgeons developed various techniques to limit them. In a previous publication, we reminded our readers of one of the gems of Italian surgery, Dr. Giuseppe Ruggi, who operated in Bologna from the end of 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. To him we owe the introduction and dissemination of the antiseptic method in Bologna. His scientific activity continued with Dr. Benedetto Schiassi, his successor. The techniques used to avoid microbial contamination by the Italian surgeon Dr. Schiassi, are particularly interesting, as Schiassi’s tentorium is still useful. Despite advances in surgical technologies, many innovations to prevent infection in surgery proposed in the past are still relevant today.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140
Author(s):  
Constantin Vadimovich Troianowski

This article investigates the process of designing of the new social estate in imperial Russia - odnodvortsy of the western provinces. This social category was designed specifically for those petty szlachta who did not possess documents to prove their noble ancestry and status. The author analyses deliberations on the subject that took place in the Committee for the Western Provinces. The author focuses on the argument between senior imperial officials and the Grodno governor Mikhail Muraviev on the issue of registering petty szlachta in fiscal rolls. Muraviev argued against setting up a special fiscal-administrative category for petty szlachta suggesting that its members should join the already existing unprivileged categories of peasants and burgers. Because this proposal ran against the established fiscal practices, the Committee opted for creating a distinct social estate for petty szlachta. The existing social estate paradigm in Russia pre-assigned the location of the new soslovie in the imperial social hierarchy. Western odnodvortsy were to be included into a broad legal status category of the free inhabitants. Despite similarity of the name, the new estate was not modeled on the odnodvortsy of the Russian provinces because they retained from the past certain privileges (e.g. the right to possess serfs) that did not correspond to the 19th century attributes of unprivileged social estates.


2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 6-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milutin Nenadovic

Discordances of harmonic mental functioning are as old as the human kind. Psychopathological behaviour of an individual in the past was not treated as an illness. That means that psychopathology was not considered an illness. In all past civilizations discordance of mental harmony of an individual is interpreted from the physiological aspect. Psychopathologic expression was not considered an illness, so social attitudes about psychiatric patients in the past were non-medical and generally speaking inhuman. Hospitals did not follow development of medicine for admission of psychiatric patients in past civilizations, not even in the antique era. According to historic sources, the first hospital that was meant for mental patients only was established in the 15th century, 1409 in Valencia (Spain). Therefore mental patients were isolated in a special institution-hospital, and social community rejected them. Only in the new era psychopathological behavior begins to be treated as an illness. Therefore during the 19th century psychiatry is developed as a special branch of medicine, and mental disorder is more and more seen according to the principals of interpretation of physical illnesses. By the middle of the 19th century psychiatric hospitals are humanized, and patients are being less physically restricted. Deinstitutialisation in protection of mental health is the heritage of reforms from the beginning of the 19th century which regarded the prevention of mental health protection. It was necessary to develop institutions of the prevention of protection in the community which would primarily have social support and characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (73) ◽  

This research covers an examination of the effects of the ongoing war in Palestine on artists of Palestinian origin and their works that can be considered as “uprising (intifada)”. Although the beginning of the Palestine-Israel conflict can be dated back to the end of the 19th century, the turning point has been known as 1948 when the State of Israel was officially declared. While the year 1948 means victory for the Israelis, this date was imprinted on the memories of the Palestinians as a “Catastrophe (nakba in Arabic)”. The First Palestinian Intifada (uprising), which took place twice in Palestine from 1987 to 1993 (the period from the signing of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian uprising against the occupation of Palestinian lands), the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) from September 2000 to 2005 and the interim periods when the artists came to the fore with their works were evaluated within the scope of the uprisings. Artists who attempt to trace the traces of individual and social war memory, notably those such as Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir and Dana Awartani, were addressed within the scope of the research on the works of artists of Palestinian origin. As a result, the works of artists, who have been continuing in Palestine from the past to the present and cannot easily isolate themselves from the conflicts, will take their place in art history as the anatomy of an occupied society by war. Keywords: war, art, Intifada art, Palestinian artists, occupation


1970 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Oleg W. Szeremietiew

The article addresses the oeuvre devoted to the Napoleonic Wars by eminent Polish battle painter and illustrator of the 2nd half of the 19th century, Juliusz Kossak (the founder of a dynasty of artists). Many of the artist’s pictures and watercolours show Polish soldiers, participants of the Epopee. They reflected not only the work and research of the master and his vision of the past, but also the patriotic idea of the revival of Poland and its nation.  


ORGANON ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Adèle Chevalie

The fact that ethnographical collections, often ancient, are preserved in archaeological museums nowadays might not be obvious. The material culture of living societies is not, indeed, the priority of archaeologists, who are mainly interested in societies of the past. However, a museological and historical approach makes it possible to study these collections and highlight their differential management according to institutions and epistemological developments in the human sciences, since the middle of the 19th century.


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