FIVE DEPICTIONS OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE CROATIAN SACRAL HERITAGE

Male circumcision has been perceived differently in different cultures. In modern times, if it is a non-medical indication, circumcision becomes the starting point of many ethical and other discussions. Its rootedness in Christianity is fixed, among other things, in sacral art and iconography. This article presents five sacral images of the Circumcision of Christ from the holdings of the Croatian sacral heritage with the aim of noticing their iconographic and sacral-medical values. In this article, it is presented the results of field research related to the identification and medical-iconographic presentation of the motive for the circumcision of Jesus Christ in the area of the northern and central Adriatic coast. Five such paintings have been recorded and will be described and compared with similar works by European masters. These are the works of Venetian and Central European provenance and were created between the 16th and 18th centuries. The basic traditional Jewish iconography is visible in all the paintings but modified according to current religious standards. These depictions from the area of Croatia contextualizing and filling in the gaps in verbal records on this topic in our region fit Croatia into an undoubted component of the European Judeo-Christian heritage and when it comes to rare iconographic depictions.

Impact of antibiotic consumption on the carriage of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by school children.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic consumption in the paediatric population is one of the key drivers of the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance, which is a serious global threat to public health and clinical medicine. The aims of this study were to investigate systemic antibiotic consumption in school children and to assess the associations among antibiotic consumption, carriage rate and resistance of respiratory pathogens residing in the upper respiratory tract mucosa. METHODS: In this prospective study, throat and nasopharyngeal swabs from 450 school children, 6-15 years of age (225 healthy children and 225 patients who were ambulatory treated for upper respiratory tract infection), were processed in 2014 in Rijeka, Croatia, and clinical data were obtained via a questionnaire. RESULTS: In total, 17% of the children had consumed an antibiotic in the previous 6 months, including 7% of the healthy children and 27% of the acutely ill patients. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were amoxicillin (26%), amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (26%) and macrolides (18%). Respiratory pathogens were more frequently isolated from children who had consumed an antibiotic in the previous 6 months [odds ratio (OR) 3.67, P < 0.001]. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were also more frequent in children who had been exposed to antibiotics (OR 5.44, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Penicillins are the most frequently used antibiotics among school children. The results of this study demonstrate that antibiotic consumption is linked with higher carriage rates and resistance rates of respiratory tract pathogens. Therefore, rational use of antibiotics could prevent the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria.

[Public health services and healthcare workforce in Bakar of the 18th and 19th century]. / Javnozdravstvena sluzba i zdravstveni djelatnici u Bakru tijekom XVIII. i XIX. stoljeca.

This review article draws on scarce and poorly studied archival information and several published articles to describe the development and organisation of public health services in the town of Bakar over the 18th and 19th century. For a short while at the turn of the 19th century, Bakar established a hospital run by two physicians and one surgeon to treat patients affected by the so called Skrljevo disease, an endemic type of syphilis. As the century went on, the number of healthcare providers increased by two more physicians, four surgeons, and three to six licensed midwives. There was also a town pharmacy, that worked all that time. As a busy port, the town also provided well-organised maritime sanitary services. As its economy changed over the two centuries to come to a halt after an initial boom, which resulted in a severe drop in population from 7600 to 2000 people, public services deteriorated, including public health. Maritime services suffered the hardest blow, while the workforce gradually came down to one or two physicians and surgeons and several midwives.

Anatomical knowledge among medieval folk artists: osteological interpretation of two Dance of Death motifs.

Anatomy has a long history that started with dissection of animals and then expanded and flourished thanks to dissections performed on human bodies. Artists had a crucial role in uncovering the secrets of human anatomy. While most studies have focused on the influence of famous Renaissance artists on human anatomy studies, the anatomical drawings by pre-Renaissance artists and local craftsmen have remained in their shadow. One of the most popular artistic genres in which complete or parts of human skeletons appear is the Dance of Death (Danse Macabre). This article is an anthropological study of two medieval Dance of Death frescoes that are unusual in being relatively early as well as accurately datable. A comparative morphological analysis of the two late 15th century works present in Istria has been conducted. The two works were painted by two local masters and show how the artists filled the gaps in their knowledge of human anatomy mostly with insights into animal bones and imagination. Their artworks, even though only 16 years apart, demonstrate substantial differences in the representation of the skeletons. The article argues that the history of medicine and of art could make good use of osteology and physical anthropology in attempts to define and understand how anatomical knowledge developed among pre-Renaissance and post-Renaissance artists and local people.

Public health problems in the medieval statutes of Croatian Adriatic coastal towns: from public morality to public health.

The article seeks out the regulations about public health in the oldest medieval statutes of fourteen cities of the eastern Croatian Adriatic coast, between the thirteenth and sixteenth century. The research revealed numerous examples of direct or indirect ways of protecting public health. Through the analyzed documents, a noteworthy relationship between public morality and public health can be noted. The described rules are important as a reflection of awareness about public health as a condition of survival and progress in the past. They witness a progressive transition from an original common law into a written law as well as the impact that religion had in influencing people's general opinion and lifestyle in light of public health problems.

Depiction of facial nerve paresis in the gallery of portraits carved in stone by George Matthew the Dalmatian on the Sibenik Cathedral dating from the 15th century.

The introductory segment of this paper briefly describes George Matthew the Dalmatian, the architect who, between 1441 and 1473, oversaw the construction of the Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik, a city on the Croatian side of the Adriatic coast. Of the most impressive details included in this monumental construction and sculptural flamboyant gothic production infused with distinctive Dalmatian spirit is a frieze of 71 stone and three lion portraits encircling the outer apse wall. From the intriguing amalgamation of portraits of anonymous people this master came across in his surrounding, the fiftieth head in the row has been selected for this occasion. On the face of a younger man the authors have recognized and described pathognomonic right-sided facial nerve paresis. The question posed here is whether this is coincidental or it represents the master's courage, given that instead of famous people in the cathedral he situated not only ordinary people but also those "labelled" and traditionally marginalized, thus, in the most beautiful manner, foreshadowing the forthcoming spirit of Humanism and Renaissance in Croatian and European art.

The cult of St. Lucia, patroness of the eyes: some examples from Croatian ethnomedical tradition. On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of her martyrdom.

In the introductory part, the authors present several patrons/patronesses of the eyes and sight, as well as the protectors from eye diseases. In addition, presented is a short hagiography of St. Lucia, the most famous among the patrons of the eyes. The second part is dedicated to the cult of St. Lucia, which has existed among the Croats from the 10th century until present day. Testimonies to this are numerous churches, chapels, altars, paintings, sculptures, processions, pilgrimage, prayers, votive gifts, and many other forms of folk piety. By reviewing several characteristic examples from Istria and the region of Kvarner, the importance of this veneration is indicated, for general and religious tradition as well as for the history of medicine, especially the history of ethno-ophthalmology.