Brain Awareness Week 2021 at Ibn Sina Academy (India): A Report

Brain- and neuroscience-related diseases and research are an important aspect to be discussed and explored at public interest. International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) is an international organization that is involved in spearheading both these activities. Brain Awareness Week (BAW) was never organized in a city which gave rise to the foundation of “Indian Academy of Neurosciences (IAN).” Stalwarts like Professor P. N. Saxena, Professor Om Chandra, Professor Mahdi Hasan, Professor K. C. Singhal, etc. did some significant efforts to promote neuroscience and brain research in Aligarh. They also established “Interdisciplinary Brain Research Centre” at Aligarh Muslim University and organized many scientific events including the Fifth Annual Conference of the IAN from December 7 to December 9, 1986. They also established “Interdisciplinary Brain Research Centre” at Aligarh Muslim University. Likewise, Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences is another institution where a large number of publications on neuroscience exist. With this background, BAW with a theme, “Neuroscience through the ages to modern times” was organized by the courtesy of IBRO-APRC Brain Awareness Week Grant. The exhibition of publications extant at Ibn Sina Academy (depicting history of neuroscience since medieval era specially the works of medieval Arabs who played a significant role in the growth of neurosurgery) and public awareness lectures on importance of neuroscience research helped in some extent to increase public awareness, foster public enthusiasm and interest in the younger generation. Students of all science disciplines including Unani medicine were invited to participate at various events such as presentation of postal stamps on neuroscience, paintings, essay writing competition, and poetry on brain and neuroscience.

MO1033URINE EXAMINATION - A CHALLENGE FOR NEPHROLOGISTS FROM ANCIENT TIMES

Background and Aims Extensive archaeological material indicates that records of the treatment of kidney disease without examining the cause and solely by examining the appearance of urine date back to ancient times. To this day, the basic clinical approach to nephrology patient included an overview of freshly sampled urine from the uncatheterized bladder and monitoring of urine output.The aim of the paper is to analyze the history of the urine analysis. Method Data were collected from books, magazines, encyclopedias and databases. Results The first nephrological experiences and doctrines that connected the clinical picture with diseases of the urinary bladder, kidneys or liver were written down in the opus Corpus Hippocraticium, which contains a total of 53 works. Opus Hippocraticium contains in its work Aphorisms a total of 22 aphorisms dedicated to uroscopy. Such examinations revealed specific changes in urine that were considered important for the onset and maintenance of the disease (Predictions II paragraphs 567,569,571). Galen (Claudios Galenos) is the most famous representative of Roman medicine and a follower of the teachings of Hippocrates. In his work De crisibus (K IX, 550-668) he described in detail the changes in urine.The physicians who marked the first and second centuries with their work on urine specificities were Selius Aurelianus (Tarde Passiones V, 3) and Cornelia Celsus (De Medicina 4:17). The apostate Oribazi (Oribasius of Pergamum; 325-403) wrote a "Medical Collection" which consists of 70 books. The importance of uroscopy for the prognosis of diseases is also described in the texts on secretions in this collection.Etius of Amida wrote (Aetius 502-575) a very semi-paired collection of "Sixteen Books of Medicine". In Book V of his work he wrote 15 chapters on the characteristics of urine. He incorporated the described changes in urine into the theory of four types of body fluids. Due to the advanced approach, this collection became the basis of all subsequent works on uroscopy.Pavle Eginski (625-690) is an Alexandrian student who practiced uroscopy and is the author of seven books entitled "Excerpts from Medicine" in which he introduces new concepts and describes in detail how to collect and examine urine. At that time, the greatest contribution to uroscopy was considered to have been made by Magnus Emesianus with his classification of urine characteristics.The most famous representative of medicine from the Byzantine era is Theophilus Protospatorius (VII century) a physician, monk, and philosopher of the Byzantine period wrote (De Urinis 68-70), a treatise on urine which was translated into Arabic and Hebrew and highly esteemed among the urologists of the time. Serbian medieval medicine was a synthesis of Western European and Byzantine science.Scientific access to treatment and permanent medical education was provided in the monastery hospitals (typical of the Hilandar / Studenica monastery), but very few manuscripts from that period have been preserved. The most extensive and significant medieval medical manuscript in the Serbian language is the "Hilandar Medical Codex".In the "Journal of Uroscopy", 62 paragraphs are dedicated to Byzantine uroscopy-macroscopic examination of changes in urine. Uroscopy has been developed until the introduction of the forerunner microscope for examining urine at the end of the 16th century. The application of microscopy in the examination of urine is constantly being improved, and the first automatic analysis of urinary sediment was done in 1985. Conclusion Although urine analysis has been used since ancient times, today the diagnosis depends a lot on the quality of interpretation of the findings. Despite attempts to standardize urine sediment analysis using various methods as a cheap and non-invasive method, it is still not sufficiently used in differentiating different kidney diseases.

Medieval shifts in the balance of power.

This chapter has eleven subsections that explain the context of the European political economy and trade during the late medieval period. The subchapters are about the late medieval European economy, spices in medieval cuisine, spices in medieval medicine, silk in medieval Europe, the world system in the thirteenth century, the Venetian trading empire, the Catalonian trade networks, the Hanseatic League, internal European trade and the Champagne Fairs, Genghis Khan and reopening of the silk route, and the end of the Crusader states and Muslim trade.

Medical Terms in the Arabic Manuscript Kitāb al-mi’a fi al-ṭibb (“Hundred Books on the Skills of Medicine”) by Abu Sahl Isa b. Yahya al-Masihi (the 11th Century)

The article is based on the manuscript “Hundred books on skills of Medicine” by Abu Sahl al-Masihi from the collection of the Oriental Department of the Gorky Library of St. Petersburg State University (Ms. O 667). The author of this written monument was regarded as the teacher of Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The text of Abu Sahl al-Masihi is an encyclopedic medical treatise of the XI century. It consists of one hundred “books”, each of which is a separate and independent chapter dedicated to a specific problem of theoretical or practical medicine. The article presents an analysis of Arabic medical terms found in the table of contents to the first book. They can be divided into four categories: borrowings from other languages, obsolete terms, terms found in the Qur’an, and terms with Arabic roots. The authors of the article cited fragments of Quranic texts as an illustration of the early origin of some terms for physiological states. The medical knowledge and traditions of the Arabs played a decisive role in the development of Arab-Muslim medieval medicine. Medical terms of the Arabs, introduced into scientific circulation in the early Middle Ages, are actively used in modern Arabic. The results of the lexical analysis of medical terminology from the first “book” of the treatise reflect the scale of the phenomenon called Arab-Muslim medieval medicine.

Pan Islamica.

This chapter discusses the expansion of Islam and details of the international Muslim trade. It consists of eleven subheadings which are about the Rapid Spread of Islam, The Byzantine Trade, A New Trading Empire in the Northern Steppes: The Khazar Khaganate, The Arab Agricultural Revolution, The Shifts of the Centre of the Muslim World, The City of Baghdad, Islam and Medieval Medicine, The Spread of Islam across South East Asia, Muslim Expansion Towards China, Muslim Maritime Trade with South East Asia, and lastly, The Muslim Sea Trade with China.