The memory of today in the history of medicine.
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Historiography↗
Biomedical subjects
J P Tricot
Publications and source records attributed to J P Tricot.
[Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius].
Born in Amsterdam in 1601, Plempius studied at Louvain, Leiden & Padua where he obtained a doctorate in medicine in 1623. He was appointed Professor at Louvain in 1633 and died there in 1671 after a brilliant academic & scientific career. He spent thirty years of his life working on a translation into Latin of the Arabic text of the first 2 books of Avicenna's treatise "The Canon", as well as of the chapter in book 4 dealing with fevers. The book was published by Nempaeus in Louvain in 1658. For many years, Plempius used it as a reference manual for medical students. In writing this book, Plempius made use of an Arabic manuscript made available to him by an old acquaintance of his from Leiden, J. Golius who, in the course of his diplomatic career in the Orient, had collected hundreds of Arabic manuscripts (currently held by the University Library of Leiden and the Bodleian at Oxford). Through the example of Plempius, the Arab contribution to the European medical humanism of the XVIIth century will be analyzed.
Arab World↗
[Hippocrates and his legacy: a colloquium in Brussels, May 7 and 8, 1999].
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Congresses as Topic↗
[Places the medical historian should visit].
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Belgium↗
[Ludovicus Nonnius (1553-1645) Marrano physician in Antwerp, author of the 'Diaeteticon'].
In 1492 and 1497 respectively the King of Spain and the King of Portugal promulgated decrees expelling jewish families from the Iberic Peninsula. The Nuñes family, that came to live in Antwerp at about 1550, was of marranic iberian descent. Alvarez Nuñes, Luis's (Ludovicus) father was for some time professor of medicine at the Louvain University and he practised private medicine in Antwerp for 30 years. He belonged to the group of Portuguese-marranic physicians who in Antwerp gave medicine a new impulse in the XVIth century, thanks to the return to Arabic-Islamic sources and consequently to the Greek tradition. The art of printing, in full expansion in Antwerp (e.g. Christophe Plantin), had also a stimulating influence. Ludovicus Nonnius was born in Antwerp in 1553; he obtained his medical degree in about 1577 in Louvain and settled down in his native town. He built up an important practice and became in 1620 a cofounder of the first medical society in the Southern Netherlands, the 'Collegium Medicum Antverpiense'. As physician, naturalist, writer, latin poet, numismatist and connaisseur of the Greek and Latin authors, this man is a good example of a Renaissance humanist. He died in 1645 at the age of 92. Numerous data point to his friendship with Rubens. Firstly, the frontispieces of two of Nonnius' books were signed by the Antwerp master. Secondly, there is Nonnius' portrait by Rubens. Thirdly, Rubens asked several times for Nonnius' medical advice. The artist appreciated especially his dietary prescriptions. Numerous writings from the hand of Ludovicus Nonnius have been preserved: his correspondence with Justus Lipsius and with the physician and writer from Dordrecht, Jan van Beverwyck, his comments on Latin classics, books on geography and history and several books on numismatics. A special merit of the author is that he can be considered to be the founder of medical dietetics. He was the first to systematically study foods from a medical and hygienic point of view. His work, however, is based upon empiricism and the booklearning of his century. The first of Nonnius' books on dietetics, "Ichthyophagia", describes 37 species of noble fish. He asserts that eating fish is very healthy. The main work of Nonnius is his "Diaeteticon sive de re cibaria libri IV" (first edition 1627, second edition 1645). The four parts of the "Diaeteticon" are full of references to and comments on numerous authors. In his first book he exposes the basic principles of a healthy feeding. Then follows the description of four kinds of bread, an enumeration of vegetables and fruit, with a description of their action upon the body humors. Finally a praise of salt, the universal preserving substance. The second part treats meat, even pork, that, according to Nonnius, may be eaten moderately. In the third book the produce of sea and rivers are examined, in fact a new version of the "Ichthyophagia". Finally in the "Liber Quartus" Nonnius discusses beverages: he describes several sorts of wine and the advises against the mixing of wines. Nonnius gave a great importance to the curative properties of mineral water, for instance by kidney stones. This subject was also dealt with in the correspondence between Nonnius and van Beverwyck. The mild pinotherapy was in any case more advisable than the lithotomy applied in season and out of season at that time. Nonnius' works had a great notoriety which was a rare fact for books about medicine. Nowadays, the general principles the author formulated about 'healthy food' are still valuable. In his view they evidently lean only on empirism; that is why many of his counsels cannot be followed any longer. Nevertheless the insistence of Nonxius on eating fish and drinking mineral water may still be fully agreed with.
Belgium↗
[Cocaine: half a century of therapeutic use (1880-1930)].
After observations concerning the cultivation, the trade and the use of coca by the Peruvian population, several Spanish physicians--among whom MONARDES--had already in the XVIth century, proposed to use this plant as a medicine. Therapeutical experiments however were not effected until the second half of the XIXth century. In 1559 the Italian neurologist MANTEGAZZA was the first to try out the remedy on himself and to advocate the use of coca as an internal medicine. Experiments with cocaine were still made during about twenty years, until more and more therapeutical applications clearly appeared. In psychiatry cocaine was used--also on Freud's recommendation--as an euphoriant excitant in cases of melancholia, both physical and psychic exhaustion and of cachexia. It was further used as a substitution therapy for morphine-addicts. 1884 also meant a break-through for the use of cocaine as a local anesthetic. It was first used in eye-surgery and was applied later on in dentistry and in cases of minor surgery. Local pain-killing injections seems to have been used at the beginning of our century in all sorts of indications. Cocaine was also applied to cure asthma, mountain-sickness, sea-sickness, pregnancy vomiting and all possible sorts of cramping pains. Although in the last years of the XIXth century the medical literature already clearly warned against the danger of therapeutically induced cocaine mania, it is only several years after World War I that the use of cocaine pills for painful diseases of the mouth and of the upper digestion organs still appeared. Between 1880 and 1930, we may assert that cocaine had taken the place of the universal panacea of the Middle Ages, the Theriaca.
Antidotes↗
Turnover of fibrinogen, plasminogen, and prothrombin during exercise in man.
The turnover of biologically intact high-purity 125I- and 131I-labeled fibrinogen, plasminogen, and/or prothrombin was studied in 16 untrained healthy subjects before and during strenuous physical exercise on a bicycle ergometer (repeated 4 times/day for 2 days). The exertion resulted in the well-known changes in the coagulation and fibrinolytic tests but did not induce changes in the concentration of fibrinogen, plasminogen, or prothrombin in the plasma. A significantly increased catabolism of fibrinogen and plasminogen but not of prothrombin was observed. The extent of Aalpha-chain degradation of fibrinogen in the plasma was quantitated before and 2 h after exercise, and a significant increase in degraded Aalpha chains was found in the postexercise samples. Immunochemical estimation of plasmin-antiplasmin complex in four subjects revealed a small increase after exercise in three of them. All these data support the concept that plasminogen activation and plasmin-induced fibrinogen degradation occur to some extent in man following strenuous physical exercise.
Adult↗
Managed care, economical and medical ethics.
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Economics↗