History of Medicine

This title marks the 500th anniversary of the birth and the 450th anniversary of the death of Vesalius. The authors translated Latin chapters of the Fabrica dedicated to the brain, a milestone in the history of neuroscience. Many chapters are accompanied by a commentary tracking the discoveries that paved the way to our modern understanding of the brain - from the pineal gland that regulates sleep, the fornix and mammillary bodies for memory, the colliculi for auditory and visual perception, and the cerebellum for motor control, to the corpus callosum for inter-hemispheric cross-talk, the neural correlates of senses, and the methods for dissections. The chapters constitute a primer for those interested in the brain and history of neuroscience. The translation, written with modern anatomical terminology in mind, provides direct access to Vesalius' original work on the brain. Those interested in reading the words of the Renaissance master will find the book an invaluable addition to their Vesalian collection.Less

Epilepsy is a common disease of the brain, occurring in roughly 1% of all people, and although repeated epileptic seizures are its clinical hallmark, epilepsy is not just a medical phenomenon, but a social construct, with cultural, political, and financial consequences. People with epilepsy are exposed to stigma and burdened with disadvantages which can be far reaching. There are indeed many remedies, but no cure. This book provides a biography of modern epilepsy in the form of a brief and selective narrative of some of the important developments in medical and social epilepsy research, with its many ups and downs, over the period since 1860. Its anatomy of modern epilepsy in eight chapters is, inevitably in this short book, selective, and intentionally provocative. The book’s main objective is to provide both a survey of the evolution of epilepsy and its treatment in the post-Jacksonian era, and also a critical look at where we are today and how we got there. This book tries to make an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff in the development of better epilepsy care. Good and bad events and concepts of historic consequence are discussed. It is acknowledged that, although the end of epilepsy is in reach of some, there is at present no prescribed scientific path to the end of epilepsy for others. Regardless of the severity of epilepsy, patients, with the support of their physicians and modern medicine, must create their own solutions to the multiple issues they face.Less

The neuron doctrine, first formulated in 1891, states that the brain is constructed of individual neurons, organized into functioning circuits that mediate behavior. It is the fundamental principal that underlies all of neuroscience and clinical neurology. Foundations of the Neuron Doctrine gives an authoritative account of how this theory was the product of an explosion of histological studies and vigorous debates near the end of the nineteenth century by an extraordinary group of scientists, led by Santiago Ramon y Cajal of Spain, using a selective stain discovered by Camillo Golgi of Italy. They were the first to describe the distinctive branching patterns of nerve cells, providing evidence that the cells interact as individual units to form circuits, opposed however by Golgi, who held out for a view that the nerve cells form syncytial networks. Studies in the 1950s appeared to confirm the nerve cell as an individual unit, as embodied in the neuron doctrine, which became the basis for the rise of concepts of normal and disordered neural function since then. This 25th Anniversary Edition is timely. Recent studies are showing a much greater degree of complexity in neuronal organization, so that the debate of neuron versus network is again coming to the fore in neuroscience research. Unique to this Anniversary Edition is the inclusion of commentaries by distinguished international leaders - Marina Bentivoglio, Xavier De Felipe, Sten Grillner, Paolo Mazzarello, Larry Swanson, and Rafael Yuste - on the continuing relevance of the neuron doctrine for modern studies of the brain at all levels, from genes and molecules to microcircuits, neural networks, and behavior. As this new wave of modern studies expands our concepts of nervous function as the basis of behavior, Foundations of the Neuron Doctrine will be a unique source providing conceptual continuity from classical times to the present and into the future.Less

An exhaustive biography of French neuropsychiatrist Georges Gilles de la Tourette (1857–1904) has never been undertaken. Gilles de la Tourette worked closely with the nineteenth-century founder of neurology in Paris, Jean-Martin Charcot. His name is universally known because of the eponymous, disabling syndrome that affects 0.9% of children/adolescents. Unpublished family archives, as well as Gilles de la Tourette’s correspondence with the Parisian journalist Georges Montorgueil, conserved at the national Archives in Paris, were examined together with press and police archives to portray Georges Gilles de la Tourette’s family and professional life in an original light. These archives have never before been studied or made available to the public. How the eponymous syndrome was isolated, the errors initially made in its description, the hidden role of Jean-Martin Charcot, and the disputes with other authors are covered in detail based on multiple sources, original or already published. An in-depth analysis of the genesis of Gilles de la Tourette’s prolific neurological and psychiatric works within their historical context rounds out this biography. Major figures of neurology of the time are also featured—including Freud, Charcot and his son, Brissaud, and Babiński. Interwoven with Gilles de la Tourette’s life and times are discussions of politics, theater, literature, the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, and numerous letters exchanged with Jules Claretie of the Académie Française to highlight his significant involvement in each of these domains. The book concludes with a complete bibliography of all works written by Gilles de la Tourette, compiled for the first time.Less

Hippocrates’ Oath and Asclepius’ Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession articulates the Oath as establishing the medical profession—a practice incorporating an internal, uniquely medical ethic that particularly prohibits doctors from killing. In its most basic and least controvertible form, this ethic mandates that physicians try to help while not trying to harm the sick. Relying on Greek myth, drama, and medical experience (e.g., homeopathy), the book shows how this medical code arises from reflection on the most vexing medical-ethical problem: iatrogenic harm, injury caused by a physician. The book argues that deliberate iatrogenic harm—especially the harm of a doctor choosing to kill (physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and involvement in capital punishment)—amounts to an abandonment of medicine as an exclusively therapeutic profession. Since electively killing a patient always injures (even when done at the patient’s request), the Oath excludes killing (along with other salient harms such as sexual exploitation and the violation of patient confidentiality) from medicine as a profession. The work argues that medicine as a profession necessarily involves stating before others what one stands for: the goods one seeks and the bads one seeks to avoid on behalf of the sick. The book considers and rejects the view that medicine is purely a technique lacking its own unique internal ethic. It concludes by noting that medical promising (as found in the White Coat Ceremony by which US medical students matriculate) implicates medical autonomy, which merits respect, including the honoring of professional conscientious objection.Less

This resource traces the history of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in detail along with a commentary of Edward Meryon's research, which has led to our current understanding of the disease, with full references and informative, historically relevant illustrations.Less

Written by two radiologists who have a passion for the history of their field, The History of Radiology is a beautifully illustrated review of the remarkable developments within radiology and the scientists and pioneers who were involved. This engaging and authoritative history will appeal to a wide audience including medical students studying for the Diploma in the History of Medicine of the Society of Apothecaries (DHMSA), doctors, medical physicists, medical historians and radiographers.Less

This resource covers the history of the WFN from its founding in Brussels in 1957 to the present day. Written by a former President and long-standing officer of the WFN, The History of the World Federation of Neurology chronicles the formation and expansion of the WFN, the development of its structure and various committees, and the evolution of its global biennial meeting, the World Congress of Neurology. Sections focus on the key neurologists involved in the development of the WFN, including Houston Merritt, Pearce Bailey Jr, and Ludo van Bogaert, to name but a few, as well as the history of its educational publications, including World Neurology and Journal of the Neurological Sciences.Less

Pity, disgust, fear, cure, and prevention—all are words that Americans have used to make sense of what today we call intellectual disability. Inventing the Feeble Mind explores the history of this disability in the United States from its several identifications over the past 200 years—idiocy, imbecility, feeblemindedness, mental defect, mental deficiency, mental retardation, and most recently intellectual disability. Using institutional records, private correspondence, personal memories, and rare photographs, James Trent argues that the economic vulnerability of intellectually disabled people (and often their families), more than the claims made for their intellectual and social limitations, has shaped meaning, services, and policies in United States history.Less

Evidence-based medicine is a concept that has come to the fore in the past few years. Clinicians are increasingly encouraged to practise patient management based on available evidence in the scientific literature, which also applies to surgical specialties, although surgery has traditionally seen a lack of use of this information, with individual surgeon's preferences being most influential in treatment choices. However, more recently, there has been a large expansion of trials and studies aimed at providing surgeons with information to guide their choices using firm evidence. The new edition of this resource has been revised and expanded to include new data where relevant, and also features a new chapter on pituitary surgery. Less

The Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health is the most comprehensive and authoritative review published in this field.

The scientific focus of this book is on the human mind and behavior viewed from an evolutionary perspective. The author is a clinical psychiatrist but his research background ranges from primate ethology to neuroscience, behavioral biology to molecular genetics, and Darwinian psychiatry to evolutionary psychology. Discussion of emotions, cognitive capacities, and behaviors integrates a variety of research and clinical findings that, ultimately, can be reduced to the evolutionary distinction between proximate mechanisms and adaptive functions. An original feature of the book is that it combines science and art. Each chapter is inspired by a painting masterpiece, and a substantial portion of the text is devoted to introducing the reader to the artistic significance of the works and to biographical notes concerning the painters who made them. In addition, each painting is accurately reproduced in a full-page color plate. Description of the evolutionary theories that explain how the human mind works are intermixed with the critical discussion of the perspectives of humanistic disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, religion, or literature. In order to give the reader lively examples of psychological and behavioral patterns, the chapters are filled with stories of people—stories of literary characters, stories of historical characters, and clinical cases.Less

Patients as Art: Forty Thousand Years of Medical History in Drawings, Paintings, and Sculpture traces the history of medicine through works of art stretching from the Paleolithic period to the present. Long before humans could write, before they had a medical science or possibly even a religion, they had art. Where works of art have involved patients, they have provided insight beyond aspects of sickness and health and life and death that can never be explained by science alone—humanistic aspects of the patient experience that can’t be measured or weighed or dissected. The works analyzed in this book, each of which features one or more patients, were chosen for their esthetic appeal and for the skill with which they depict important developments in medicine over time. Together they offer a compelling perspective on the history of medicine that reflects the outward expressions of artists’ innermost feelings and personal prejudices. In analyzing these works, medical historian Dr. Philip Mackowiak brings the perspective of an internist with over four decades of experience caring for patients, teaching doctors-in-training, and conducting clinical research.Less

This resource presents a lively account of how our ideas and knowledge about human genetics have developed over the past century from the perspective of someone inside the field with a deep interest in its historical aspects. Dr. Harper has researched the history of genetics and has had personal contact with a host of key figures whose memories and experiences extend back 50 years, and he has interviewed and recorded conversations with many of these important geneticists. From the origins of human genetics; through the contributions of Darwin, Mendel, and other giants; the identification of the first human chromosome abnormalities; and up through the completion of the Human Genome project, this Short History is written in the author's characteristic clear and personal style, which appeals to geneticists and to all those interested in the story of human genetics.Less

Charles Bell (1774–1842) was a Scottish anatomist–surgeon whose original ideas on the nervous system have been equated with those of William Harvey on the circulation. He suggested that the anterior and posterior nerve roots have different functions, and based on their connectivity he showed that different parts of the brain have different functions. He noted that individual peripheral nerves actually contain nerve fibers with different functions, that nerves conduct only in one direction, that sense organs are specialized to receive only one form of sensory stimulus, and that there is a sixth (muscle) sense. In addition to the facial palsy and its associated features named after him, he provided the first clinical descriptions of several neurological disorders and important insights into referred pain and reciprocal inhibition. Bell helped to change the way art students are taught, described the anatomical basis of facial expressions, initiated the scientific study of the physical expression of emotions, and stimulated the later work of Charles Darwin on facial expressions. His teachings influenced British and European art. Bell was a renowned medical teacher who founded his own medical school, subsequently took over the famous Hunterian school, and eventually helped establish the University of London and the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London. However, his belief in intelligent design caused him to be left behind by the evolutionist thought that developed in the nineteenth century. He was a brilliant but flawed human being who contributed much to the advance of knowledge.Less

This resource tackles questions that relate to the way medicine will be practised in the future, and provides some answers. It does not shrink from the uncomfortable challenges that lie ahead, as demand surges and new technologies add to the strain. It lays out ten levers that stand a fighting chance of closing the healthcare equation, of balancing supply and demand.Less

Sir William Richard Gowers was one of the pre-eminent clinical neurologists of the nineteenth century. Co-authored by one of Dr Gowers' descendents and two leading neurologists, this book is the definitive reference work on the life of one of the founding fathers of neurology.Less