[Johann Jakob Wepfer's book on apoplexy (1658). Critical comments on a classic in neurology].

The Swiss physician Johann Jakob Wepfer has been hailed as the author of the "classic" modern treatise on apoplexy (1658). His name is known because he demonstrated that apoplexy resulted from brain hemorrhage or occlusive diseases of the vessels. A re-examination of the original text, however, reveals surprising evidence that essential parts of Wepfer's book have been neglected so far.

[Apoplexy in ancient medical writing].

To a certain degree, the history of neurology can be conceptualised as a history of important diseases related to the nervous system. Although most of these disorders were either first discovered or classified on an anatomical and physiological basis after 1800, early descriptions of neurological symptoms and theories about their origin date back to the medical literature of antiquity. Using the case study approach, this paper reviews ancient concepts of apoplexy from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD.

[Loneliness of the physician and the "vital drive for history". On the historical self concept of medicine by Richard Koch].

This article tries to identify the theory of medical history in the work of Richard Koch (1882-1949). Rejecting the wide-spread notion of medicine as a science he vigorously argued for a self-image of medicine as an art. From that point of view he built up his theory of medical history and histoography.

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The article tries to clarify the relation between history of medicine and medical ethics. Therefore it distinguishes between the double meaning of the German word "Geschichte", which means both: "development of events" and "story". For the first option no systematic relation between history and ethics can be reconstructed.

[The formation of the child in the womb reproduction and fetal development in medieval Arabic-Islamic medicine].

In the following survey of theories of reproduction and pre-natal development in medieval Arabic medicine, the first part outlines the historical and methodological premises, indicates the major Greek sources (Corpus Hippocraticum, Aristotle, Galen) and introduces the Arabic texts relevant to the subject. In the second part three examples taken from Ibn Sīnās' Canon medicinae are presented to substantiate the supposition that the particular contribution of medieval Islam in the field of reproduction (which continued into the Latin Middle Ages) lay in the merging and harmonisation of data of various origins and concepts developed in different explanatory contexts within the Greek tradition.

[Basic concepts of pathology in Germany 1858 until today and progress in medicine].

The rise of scientific medicine in the 19th century had its origins mainly in Rudolf Virchows localistic cellular pathology. As a consequence the organism as a complex system was kept in the background. In recognition of this problem, concepts of pathology, emerging in 20th century, tried in vain to establish organismic theories of illness.

[Introduction of subjectivity and objectivity in medicine: comments on the Viktor von Weizsäcker's social medicine 1929-33].

It is well known that the principle of subjectivity played an important role in Viktor von Weizsäcker's anthropological medicine. But it is less known that he tried to introduce subjectivity as well as objectivity as main principles into his social medicine since 1929. In Heidelberg he developed a so called social therapy for people suffering from traumatic neurosis.

[General practice, theory and science of self-knowledge by the urban physician Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769)].

In addition to universities and courts, large towns were regarded as attractive locations for a successful career by physicians in the 18th century. This study reveals the spectrum of practical and scientific activities of a "physicus" like Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769) who lived in the German town of Nuremberg. Emphasis is put on his attitude towards the meaning of medical practice, theory, and science in his work.

Experiences with committees dealing with the issues of ethics.

Ethics committees have been active in Germany for 15 years now. Since 1983, such committees, which were established under public law with medical schools, medical associations and representatives of the Federal Health Office among their members, have established a working group with a growing membership of currently some 45 committees. The group's functions include the exchange of experience, the discussion of relevant ethical issues as well as the harmonization and standardization of their internal procedures.

[Paracelsus and balneology].

Starting from the words of Paracelsus, 'allein und fremd und anders'--alone and foreign and different--the influence of this important Swiss physician for the balneology of his time is outlined. Up to our days Paracelsus is honored as the real father of balneology, whereas other authors saw and probably still see hypotheses and in part utopias in his specific ideas. Paracelsus has described quite a number of thermal springs in Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany, some of them rather in detail.

Style and responsibility: medicine in postmodernity.

To what extent can postmodern developments be observed in modern medicine and which theories of postmodern philosophy can we draw on with regard to medicine's theoretical problem? This article explores these questions with special emphasis on the epistemological status of medicine, the concept of disease, and the anthropological model. It is examined whether medicine's inherent duty to act can be questioned in the light of the plurality that characterizes postmodernity. It is concluded that, according to postmodern philosophy, medicine should be characterized by a justified variety of paradigms.

Postmodernist theory and the physician-patient relationship.

The author discusses the postmodernist claim that the "grand theories" have lost credibility, even in the field of medical science and practice. Rather than representing a shared reality among physician and patient, illness represents two quite distinct realities--the meaning of one being significantly and distinctively different from the meaning of the other. However, existential clinical narratives can function as important bridges between the world of the patient and the world of the physician.

[Responsibility of the physician in reproductive medicine].

The article explores the responsibility of the physician in reproductive medicine as a therapist of the couple and the child. It is based on the understanding of responsibility as a term with six relations. The article emphasizes that responsibility can only be ascribed to the physician with regard to the structure of the physicians acting.

[Teachings of "calor innatus" in the Latin Canon medicinae of Avicenna].

This contribution examines the natural philosophy behind Avicenna's treatment of the basic physiological concepts of "innate heat", "innate spirit" and "natural moisture" in his famous "Canon medicinae" and in the short tractate "De medicinis cordialibus" usually appended to it in its Latin editions. Contrary to current belief, these concepts, far from being concisely systematized, fulfill a range of differing explicatory functions within the "Canon", which can only with great difficulty be assembled to form a homogeneous, non-contradictory theory. Furthermore, Avicenna differs in essential points from orthodox aristotelian-galenist teaching, particularly regarding the celestial origin of the unrenewable, life-preserving faculties of the "innate heat".

[Conflict between the responsibility of the physician and the medical research scientist. A basic dilemma in modern medicine].

The article describes the conflict between the physician and the biomedical scientist as a basic dilemma of modern medicine. It analyses the historical roots of that conflict and discusses different ways of solution.

["Rejuvenation" as the outcome of research on aging: dreams and theories--experiments and results].

A report is given on experiments of rejuvenation which were carried out in the first decenniums of the 20th century. The knowledge of the effect of sexual hormones on the one hand and still missing possibilities of synthesisation on the other gave rise to spectacular transplantations and further operation techniques as well as physical forms of therapy on testicles and ovaries. The fundaments of the scientific theory and the social backgrounds of these side branches of gerontology which established itself only at the end of the thirties are mentioned.

[Human abnormalities--their importance in the world view during antiquity and the early Middle Ages].

In consideration of the experience that also in our present day society the development of a handicapped baby is understood by some as the visible result of a morally guilty behaviour of the parents, the present study raises the question, whether the identification of physical appearance and moral attitude has been in a certain historical epoch the preferred approach in science for understanding the origin of human malformations. After the treatment of the teratological theories in greek medicine and aristotelian natural philosophy the question of the origin of human malformation is examined in Pliny's "Historia naturalis" and Augustine's "De civitate dei". A comparison between the theories presented shows that the moral interpretation of human malformation is an inevitable consequence of the augustinian theological thinking.

[Nutrition and individual defense--historical considerations].

The first scientific understandings on the value of nutrition and the assimilation of food, in the Greek language "metabole" (metabolism), are published in the Corpus Hippocraticum. But the conception of metabolism was introduced in scientific literature not earlier than 1839 by Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) and 1842 by Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). The antique ideas were completed in the 17th century by the theory of ferments, introduced by the iatro-chemist Johann Baptist van Helmont (1577-1644), and the Italian priest Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) could proof the existence of such processes in the living organism by animal experiments in 1776.

[Hypertensive disease in pregnancy in the history of medicine. 2: Initial scientific eclampsia research, theories and therapy].

Part 2 contents an historical review about the beginning of research about eclampsia and about the connections between theories and treatment.

[Ethnomedicine--history of medicine. Sciences of medical thinking and behavior of man].

Ethnomedicine and the history of medicine have in common the description of medical systems, whereby the separation is geographical in the former case and historical in the latter case. As experts in both fields are not at the same time practitioners of these medical systems, they depend on source material. The interpretation of these sources is largely subordinated to the subjective personal structure of the scientist on the one hand, and is closely related to epistemiological problems, coloured by the spirit of the times, on the other hand.