From Monastic Benevolence to Medical Beneficence: The Inception of Medical Ethics in Wallachia and Moldavia before the Second Half of the 19th Century.

In Middle Ages, in Moldavia and Wallachia, the healthcare system was almost non-existent, medical practice being the attribute of old women, midwives, charmers, and later monastic personnel. The first elements of medical ethics are identifiable in written texts from the 17th century, associated with a process of laicization of medicine and the appearance of the first combined civil and penal codes (Vasile Lupu's Law from 1646 and Matei Basarab's Law from 1652). In the next 150 years, elements of medical ethics were rarely identified, usually in legal regulations, personal letters, or literary works.

Nicolae Constantin Paulescu: the first explicit description of the internal secretion of the pancreas.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this article is to describe the research of Nicolae Constantin Paulescu and to emphasize his role in the discovery of insulin.

Methods: We made a thorough review of the literature and research in the Romanian Academy Archive in order to find adequate references.

Results: In 1912 N.

Non-coding RNAs: the cancer genome dark matter that matters!

Protein-coding genes comprise only 3% of the human genome, while the genes that are transcribed into RNAs but do not code for proteins occupy majority of the genome. Once considered as biological darker matter, non-coding RNAs are now being recognized as critical regulators in cancer genome. Among the many types of non-coding RNAs, microRNAs approximately 20 nucleotides in length are best characterized and their mechanisms of action are well generalized.

Shake the Disease. Georges Marinesco, Paul Blocq and the Pathogenesis of Parkinsonism, 1893.

James Parkinson, in his "Essay on the Shaking Palsy" from 1817 described for the first time the disease that later on carried his name. Its anatomical substrate remained controversial for over 100 years. The first case that suggested the association between Parkinson's disease and substantia nigra was published in 1893 Blocq and Marinesco, two scientists who worked at Salpêtrière.

Teofil Simchowicz (1879-1957): the scientist who coined senile plaques in neuropathology.

Teofil Simchowicz (1879-1957) was a Polish-Jewish neurologist who studied medicine at the Warsaw University, and worked under the founder of modern Polish school of neurology, Edward Flatau (1868-1932). It was Flatau who encouraged him to join Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) in Munich. Simchowicz focused his research on the neuropathological changes in dementia.

Late abortion. Attitudes amongst young physicians in Romania.

Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to analyze the way in which young physicians analyze and address the issue of therapeutic abortion.

Methods: A multi-institutional survey was conducted using an online questionnaire containing 10 items.

Results: Most respondents agreed with therapeutic abortion (1) if the fetus is not yet viable and the mother is put at immediate risk by the continuation of the pregnancy, and (2) when the pregnancy is over 14 weeks and the prenatal screening identifies a very severe malformation.

The face of madness in Romania: the origin of psychiatric photography in Eastern Europe.

In 1870 the Romanian physician Nicolae G. Chernbach published a photographic atlas of the main types of mental alienation, a collection of twelve plates depicting mentally ill patients from the Marcutza Asylum in Bucharest. Each photograph included a diagnosis based on the clinical nosography and theories of the physiognomy of insanity acknowledged during the period.

Statistical association criteria in forensic psychiatry-a criminological evaluation of casuistry.

Purpose: Identification of potential shared primary psychoprophylaxis and crime prevention is measured by analyzing the rate of commitments for patients-subjects to forensic examination.

Material And Method: The statistic trial is a retrospective, document-based study. The statistical lot consists of 770 initial examination reports performed and completed during the whole year 2007, primarily analyzed in order to summarize the data within the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, Bucharest, Romania (INML), with one of the group variables being 'particularities of the psychiatric patient history', containing the items 'forensic onset', 'commitments within the last year prior to the examination' and 'absence of commitments within the last year prior to the examination'.

[150 years since the birth of Thomas Ionescu (1860-1926)].

One of the most important surgeons of the 1900 period was the Romanian-born Thomas Jonnesco. He became a surgeon in Paris (1885-1890) under the guidance of D.M.

Georges Marinesco and the early research in neuropathology.

Objective: To present the scientific contributions of Georges Marinesco (1863-1938) and place his achievements within the context of early neuropathology research.

Background: Neuropathology is a relatively recent medical field, its origins dating to the late 19th century.

Results: One of the most important neuroscientists of that period was the Romanian-born Georges Marinesco.