After Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, French physician Antoine Louis Gustave Béclère pioneered the development of radiology in the late 1800s. Béclère recognized the enormous potential of radiation both diagnostically and therapeutically. His radiotherapy techniques quickly gained international renown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring World War I (WWI), also referred to as 'The Great War,' Germany implemented a pioneering biowarfare program as part of a broader military strategy to undermine Allied forces by targeting their logistical and supply capabilities. This initiative, unprecedented in its systematic and strategic application, utilized a variety of pathogens, primarily targeting animal populations, to disrupt support systems without contravening international laws, specifically the 1907 Hague Convention. The operations, shrouded in secrecy and largely led by the German General Staff, included sophisticated sabotage actions against both enemy and neutral states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: In the High Middle Ages, Venetian sovereignty was recognized in Methoni and Koroni (in Greece). It helped lay the foundations for the prevalence of democracy in Venice in the Eastern Mediterranean. The development of these two decadent regions of Messinia, had to be supported by social welfare infrastructure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: During times of war, it is common for some of the most valiant physicians to practice their skills at the battlefields. Only few of them, however, manage to excel. Among those physicians who seemed like the battlefield was their natural environment, was the military surgeon of the French army, Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn medieval Venetian Methoni, the provision of medical care could be roughly divided into two phases. During the first phase, Venice provided medical care solely to the staff, the garrison, and the Venetian citizens residing in Methoni. Medical care to the rest of the population was offered by the solitary orders that had settled in the area after the conquest of Methoni, in the context of charity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe plague is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases that can affect mankind. The disease has caused countless pandemics over the centuries in many parts of the world, mainly Asia, Africa, and Europe, and has caused over 200 million deaths, making it one of the greatest scourges of mankind throughout the ages. Similar to the rest of Greece, Crete was affected for many years by the plague during the 19th century, which caused significant mortality, both in the cities and the countryside.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOverview: Pandemics are characterized by an abrupt and sudden outburst and absence of preparation for its management. The focus during pandemics is on the medical aspect of the disease and not on its impact on the citizens' or vulnerable groups' psychosocial wellbeing.
Aim: The purpose of this study was to highlight the impact of the pandemics of the Spanish Flu and COVID-19 on children and adolescents as well as to recognize their short and long-terms effects on children's and adolescents' physical and mental health.
To reconsider Alexander the Great's injury in Kyropolis. Historical sources were compared with modern neurosurgery. Earlier interpretations were focused on the transient blindness Alexander the Great presented after the injury, but according to our point of view we should rather focus on his dysarthria which lasted almost two months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we reveal the anthrax weaponization in the Soviet Union and its impact on biowarfare research, technology, and public health that resulted in the development of the first Soviet Anthrax vaccine and the subsequent vaccination of animals and humans en masse. We assume that there are cases that a biowarfare technology was incorporated into the civilian industry and benefited public health. However, the legacy of bioweapons today still poses an asymmetric threat to public health and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rich land of Erythrae in the coast of Asia Minor attracted the attention of the Ionian king Codrus. An oracle demanded the presence of the murky deity Hecate for him to conquer the city. Priestess Chrysame was sent by Thessalians to set the strategy of the clash.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the 18th and 19th centuries, many books about science were published. Constantinos Michael (1751-1816), the first medical historian to write in Greek, contributed to this literature. Born in Kastoria, Greece, Constantinos Michael lived and studied medicine and philosophy in Vienna.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrincess Alexandra of Greece (1870-1891), the eldest daughter of King George I of Greece (1845-1913), was known as the "beloved daughter of the Athenians". Her death at the age of 21 in 1891 due to a pregnancy complication caused nationwide grief. To honour her, the Alexandra Maternity Hospital in Athens was named in her memory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJoseph Lister was a prominent British surgeon and medical scientist who established the study of antisepsis. Applying Louis Pasteur's germ theory of fermentation on wound putrefaction, he promoted the idea of sterilization in surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic. His method reduced the incidence of wound sepsis and gangrene, which, in turn, reduced the need for amputation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArabic medicine, or Arab-Islamic, mainly refers to all developments achieved in the Age of Khalifs, or the Golden Age of the Arab-Islamic civilization (ca 7-14 centuries AD). Arab scholars adopted ancient Greek medicine and soon understood the essence of the fatal disease known as cancer. They introduced various new types of cancer, distinguishing other entities like infection and proposed new methods of treatment, both surgical and non-invasive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChina's winter of 1910-1911 was one of its most difficult. A deadly airborne pneumonic plague, believed to have originated from tarbagan marmots, broke out in October 1910 in a northeastern Chinese province commonly known by the exonym Manchuria. The disease had a near 100 percent mortality rate, affecting mainly the lower socio-economic classes and eventually killing more than 60,000 people over six months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMateu Joseph Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger was a prominent Spanish chemist and scholar of the 19th century whose experimental work has enormously contributed to the progress of toxicology. Being a pioneer with his research on the effects of toxins and antidotes on live animals, he established basic principles of modern medicine and pharmacology. Orfila improved the accuracy of several chemical techniques such as the Marsh test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTuberculosis is an infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs (known as pulmonary tuberculosis). is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family of Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis; it was discovered by Robert Koch in 1882. From about 1918 to 1939, tuberculosis in Greece was characterized as a social disease because it seemed to spread among the lower social classes, including displaced people living in refugee camps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this article is to highlight the history of Hospital Agios Dimitrios, the General Hospital of Thessaloniki. During the early 20th century, many refugees settled in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. To address the growing public health needs of the city's inhabitants, the Greek government established a health agency to offer medical care and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century, Greek doctors in Smyrna collaborated with pharmacists, churches, and the city's Greek Orthodox community to create a state of-the-art health network and charitable foundation to serve physical and mental health needs of the local community. At Graekikon Nosokomion o Agios Haralampos (Greek Saint Charalampos Hospital), or the Greek Hospital, every citizen, regardless of origin, language, religion, or economic status, had access to the most appropriate medical and pharmaceutical care. Neighborhood pharmacists complemented this care by administering vaccinations and preparing medicines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn ancient Greek literature the adjective toxic (Greek: ) derives from the noun , that is the arc. This noun according to the lexicon had several meanings. Apart from the meaning that someone is able to use a bow or the military department of the archers, the medical context of the term is that a substance has the characteristic of a poison.
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