The pictogram of the pes planus from the first century AD.

PURPOSE: This study presents a pictogram engraved into the Marble Road of the ancient town of Ephesus, with a special emphasis on one part of it which represents a flat foot. Although the flat foot is a widespread and common disturbance in all time periods, we were motivated by a lack of its representation within iconographical, historical or other sources. METHOD: Aiming to confirm the diagnosis objectively we applied the modern diagnostic methodology, arch index (AI). The result was 0.33, which is a mathematical proof that the Ephesus foot is definitely flat. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this picture from the first century AD is among the oldest representations of a flat foot in history.

God's punishment or bad strategy: anti-epidemic measures in the lower Neretva basin at the time of cholera in 1886.

The epidemic of cholera that took place in the Neretva basin in 1886 was part of the fifth pandemic wave that was spreading throughout Europe. Based on the death records, vital statistics and the newspaper articles from that period, in this paper we present the emergence and the course this epidemic. In the context of analysis and experience of the epidemic of cholera in the lower Neretva basin, the newspaper articles have been recognized as a sensitive register of the changes of behavioural patterns, the way of speaking, the mechanisms of reacting and adjusting to the spreading epidemic, but also the resistance to it. It is based on this material that we can make conclusions about the relationship between the individual and the collective in the time of danger, as well as about the particularities of historical events that have been left out in other sources. Two potential paths for cholera to enter the area of the lower Neretva basin have been identified: one from the sea and the other from land, via the neighbouring country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Quarantine measures had been taken in order to prevent the onslaught of the epidemic, a sanitary cordon was organized, disinfection of the land was carried out and a cholera hospital organized in Metkovic. However, despite the undertaken measures, an inefficiency of the government organs was obvious, because their actions mainly applied to formal fulfilment of anti-epidemic measures and they quite easily handed over individual initiatives to physicians. The analysis of strategies concerning the application of anti-epidemic measures in the past can be useful for learning more about the multilayered nature of social mechanisms in the time of epidemics, which makes it convincing and valuable even in the present day.

[The lower Neretva basin as a pathological topos: press reports and politicization of the memories of the age of cholera in 1886]. / Poneretvlje kao patoloski topos: tisak I politizacija sjecanja na doba kolere 1886. g.

The lower Neretva basin as a space that has undergone historical transformation into a myth of a pathological topos has been analyzed. Starting from the fact that temporality is essential for understanding of the elements that partake in conceptualization of a myth, we have analyzed the state of this area as it was during its exposure to an epidemic of cholera in 1886. There is evidence that at this time exactly a step forward was made in comprehension of the etiology of the disease, which resulted in the change of centuries-long concepts of the Neretva basin as an unhealthy area. In this paper the Neretva basin was understood and presented as a field of unfolding of all kinds of transformations, a habitat exposed to manifold social arrangements, lushly documented in newspapers and other printed material. The arguments about the natural disaster in these texts are ethically and politically coloured, which to a large extent corresponds to the vocabulary of current print media on similar occasions. Thus, the area of the Neretva basin imposes itself as a multilayered anthropological concept, a multi-semantic ecologically and socially constituted reality, within which history functions as a valuable source of knowledge pliable to contemporary usage.

[Remembrance of the Metkovic War Hospital (1991-1996): on occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its foundation]. / Sjecanje na ratnu bolnicu metkovic (1991.-1996.): u prigodi dvadesete obljetnice od njezina osnutka.

The valley of the Neretva river, inhabited with about forty thousand people, is over one hundred kilometres away from the nearest hospital, which becomes particularly problematic in cases of mass casualties. During the Liberation War from January 1991 to June 1996, the War Hospital Metkovic was organized in the Neretva valley region. This paper deals with the activities of this hospital. The documentary basis for this paper consists of surgery protocols, records of day-clinic checkups at the War Hospital Metkovic, articles from the press of the period, private correspondence and secondary sources. In the analysed period, 1.831 people wounded in war were successfully treated in this hospital, and there were also 12.000 one-time checkups. The work and activities of war hospitals represent important chapters in the history of medicine. Research of the organization and functioning of these institutions contributes to the development of insights and experiences regarding organized medical care in the zone of immediate war activities.

Between stigma and dawn of medicine: the last leprosarium in Croatia.

In an attempt to reconstruct the function of the last leprosarium in Croatia, situated in the little town of Metkovic in the Neretva valley, we used local folk tales and compared them with different data sources, such as register of deaths in the Roman Catholic parishes in Metkovic and the nearby village of Vidonje, archived local newspapers, building documents, and different artifacts from the beginning of the 20th century. We identified individuals and families who were treated in the leprosarium during its existence from 1905, when it was built, until 1925, when it was closed down. We analyzed why the Neretva river valley was chosen for the isolation of lepers. It seems that the geographical position of the region, close to the endemic seat of the disease in the neighboring Bosnia, was more important for the decision to build the leprosarium than the incidence of leprosy or some recent outbreak of the disease in Croatia. Building of leprosariums, such as this one in Metkovic, was a part of tradition of separating lepers from human community. This was considered as a socially and medically justified behavior in a time when it was not possible to identify the cause of leprosy and apply the proper treatment.