The seventeenth century is a period of transition from religious views that are not authentic but dogmatic about demonic influences to the application of scientific and methodological criteria in science. During Enlightenment there was an approach heavily influenced by ethical issues. In this context, there is a rational recognition of the value of man free from the teleological type references. Mental illnesses are treated using scientific criteria. During the seventeenth century clinical interest is also extended to psychosis and not only to neurosis. There are several significant changes in the care of psychiatric patient, and healthcare institutions are improved and increased. Many behaviors are inspired by the values of philanthropy.
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In 1820 two French scientists - Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Jean Bienaimé Caventou - discovered and named the active alkaloid substance extracted from cinchona bark: quinine. The bark from the 'wondrous' fever tree, and its antimalarial properties, however, had long been known to both colonial scientists and indigenous Peruvians. From the mid-seventeenth century, cinchona bark, taken from trees that grow on the eastern slopes of the Andes, was part of a global circulation of botanical knowledge, practice and profit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Biogr
December 2024
Department of Neurology, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, UK.
We describe a basic 'cross-over' trial undertaken by Sir Nicholas Gilbourne of Kent, England, in or before 1631. This was used to test the effectiveness of 'weapon salve', an ointment claimed to cure 'sympathetically' (i.e.
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November 2024
Department of Biosciences, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, Oslo NO-0371, Norway.
Marine resources have been important for the survival and economic development of coastal human communities across northern Europe for millennia. Knowledge of the origin of such historic resources can provide key insights into fishing practices and the spatial extent of trade networks. Here, we combine ancient DNA and stable isotopes (δC, δN, non-exchangeable δH and δS) to investigate the geographical origin of archaeological cod remains in Oslo from the eleventh to seventeenth centuries CE.
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December 2024
Abteilung für Pharmazie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Technische Universität Braunschweig.
This paper was prompted by some striking similarities between both the ritual and the medical use of placenta in Ming China and in premodern Europe. Contrary to most accounts, which focus either on the rise of chemiatric medicine or on the growing interest in "exotic" substances, the seventeenth century in Europe also reveals a revived interest in substances from animals, including materials from human bodies. The paper will analyse the use of words signifying the placenta, and follow the trace of vernacular knowledge about the placenta and its role in birth-giving, and in medieval medical texts on women's medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Sci
November 2024
Ca' Foscari, University of Venice, Venice, Italy.
This essay proposes that the only publication of the Accademia del Cimento, referred to as ,1 Accademia del Cimento, (Firenze: Per Giuseppe Cocchini, 1667). had as one of its main goals the celebration of the House of Medici's paternity of cutting-edge experiments and instruments during the reign of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. These included Ferdinando II's thermometers and hygrometers, Torricelli's experiment and barometer, and Galileo's pendulum as a clock-regulator.
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