[German studies in tropical medicine after the Ist World War]. / Deutsche tropenmedizinische Forschung nach dem ersten Weltkrieg.

German Studies in tropical medicine come down from two sources. One of them is a pioneer activity of Koch and his disciples, especially after cholera epidemic in Hamburg in 1882; the other one--an activity of pharmaceutic industry, in particular of Bayer company. In article there are presented the scientists engaged upon the succeeding preparations against malaria and the ways leading to synthesis of them. There is also presented the progress of studies on schistosomatosis. Among the particularly meritorious in this field there are the Institut in Hamburg and similar institutions in Tubingen and Munich. Significant part in development of research was played by Germany Society for Tropical Medicine.

[Paracelsus and balneology]. / Paracelsus und die Balneologie.

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. It is certainly questionable that he visited all of them personally. Bad Pfäfers, however, definitely belongs to them, since undoubted testimonies exist that emerged during his life time. His famous 'Baderbüchlin', though, has been printed after his death in 1562. His theoretical ideas about the effects of bathing are in part very modern, others originate from medieval alchemistic sources. He used this theory of 'Separatio' of the three basal elements sulphur, mercurius and sal, as well as the idea of the 'light of Nature', but beyond that he discussed also influences of personified forces, which he assumed in nymphs, melusins and others. Furthermore, in his balneology he expressed clearly his doctrine about the macro- and microcosmic relation, and he used in his balneotherapy vegetable and mineral compounds up to precious stones. Time, too, had a special importance for the effectiveness of the bath in his eyes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Death and dying in medieval times]. / Sterben und Tod im Mittelalter.

Out of the complex theme a specific phenomenon is chosen which most likely can be assigned to the appearance of the plague in Europe in the late medieval times: 'the dance of death' mainly in its artistic, particular graphical expression. To this intent the 2600 originals of the Düsseldorf University collection are used. The prerequisites for this novel art are discussed: the sudden outbreak of the plague in Italy 1347/48, the precursors of the legend about the three living and the three dead, the so-called 'transitoriness poems', the 'Conflictus literature' and other ideas about symbolism of death in classical antiquity and early christianism are opposed to the dances of death. The latter and confrontation of the various classes and professions with the merciless death over the following centuries is used with many examples to show the changing views up to the present times. The strong religious component subsides slowly in the Baroque to a more extroverted depiction. The Age of Elightment presents yet other pictures than the 19th and 20th century where death is confronted with still new professions and events, also from technical domains. Medicine and the physicians play an important role in this from the beginning on. The question after the memento mori remains for the mortal.

[Not Available]. / Die Krise in der Medizin.

There have always been crisis in medicine since the existence of an independent healing art. Today the rise of new ideas as the holistic medicine, alternative healing procedures and social conditioned diseases doctrines seem to suggest a new crisis. The relation of health and illness and its valuation is always the focus of attention. Individual therapy and social caused health prophylaxis are the two antithesis. But too the opinion of the medical assessment and the mental attitude towards medical technology plays an important part. The two historical models of health police movements and the so-called "Medical Reform" are discussed in detail and discussions on social induced or fateful morbid symptoms are mentioned.

[Nutrition and individual defense--historical considerations]. / Ernährung und körpereigene Abwehr--historisch betrachtet.

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. Then Schwann could discover in the gastric juice a substance in 1835 which he called "pepsin". In the time of the voyages of discovery new, not yet known malnutritions on the ships were known as scurvy, beriberi and in the northern countries rickets. Then it became clear that not only the three groups of food, but also supplementary materials, known in 1912 as vitamines by Casimir Funk (1884-1967), could develop determined effects. The starvation in the first and the second world war showed clearly, that deterioration of food supply diminished the condition of immunity. Failed food experiments with gelatin, synthetically produced citric acid and the discussions of malnutrition diseases, based on a deficiency of zinc, of toddlers, are discussed as the malnutrition illness kwashiorkor in the third world. In conclusion a citation of the famous American physiologist Graham Lusk (1866-1932) is mentioned from the year 1906, who praised the scientific priority of the German medical research.

[From hospice to high-rise hospital--the development of western hospitals]. / Vom Hospiz zum Bettenturm--Die Entwicklung des abendländischen Krankenhauses.

Departing from the first infirmaries in the Roman army installed as valetudinaria exclusively for sick and wounded soldiers the development of western hospital care began based on the idea of love for fellowman. The importance of the order of Monte Cassino founded by Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century is emphasized. The role of these hospices important as asylums and hospitals with spiritual assistance is exposed as well as the endeavours of lords, kings and citizens to found hospitals in the modern sense from the 17th century onwards. The institution of the general hospital became important from 1784 onwards in Vienna and soon thereafter in Berlin. Modern nursing movements developed from protestant nursing sisters in Kaiserswerth. Further organizations for nursing such as those initiated by Florence Nightingale and Agnes Karll and the establishment of organizations such as the Red Cross are discussed. During the 19th century the large hospitals were built, modeled either after the compact system of barracks or conceived to prevent hospitalism as pavilions. Specialized institutions developed at the same time from older asylums for plague, mentally ill or leprous patients. The most recent development of high rise hospitals as well as the ideas of disposable hospitals serve to discuss functional structures of a modern health care institution.

[Domestic hygiene over the ages]. / Häusliche Hygiene im Wandel der Zeit.

The family household belongs without doubt to the oldest social institutions of the history of mankind. If there were collecting and hunting tribes or already settled farmers, in every case the manufacturing, conserving and preparing of the hunted or gathered nutrition was always the focus of the household attention. Naturally next to it problems of clothing and heating played in this connection an important role. Very soon special instruments were developed for these purposes of production and workmanship by men and the advantages or disadvantages of certain proceedings were evident. As concerned the medico-historical view one can discern four different ways of consideration of domestic hygiene: 1. Mystical-magical conceptions, which started from the ideas of the influence of foreign partially supernatural powers on manufacturing and conserving of food. 2. The idea of the disastrous influence of an whatever supposed intoxication. 3. With the beginning of bacteriology the opinion even in general public of the contamination of foods and at last 4. The fear before a radiation contamination, which grew up recently with an increased importance. For all four considerations there will be put forward historical examples and beyond this it will be examined the influence of kitchen instruments and the increased automatic control in the household. But in parallel connection the increased knowledge of hygienic basic conditions and the application in the household area will be discussed. Shortly the changed part of the woman in household will be mentioned and its importance as concerned housekeeping in past and present will be demonstrated.

[Hospital infections in changing times]. / Hospitalinfektionen im Wandel.

It has already been known in ancient medicine that diseases with similar clinical picture can occur all at once at a certain place and under certain climatic conditions, and the Hippocratics dedicated a special book of their Hippocratic Scriptures to epidemics. The symptom complex of what is nowadays called "hospitalism", however, could only develop when the first hospitals were founded in early Christian cultures, which means social foundations, which were not at all hospitals like today, but social institutions for the old people, for pilgrims and--only in the third place--an asylum for poor, homeless, ill people. As well as in other places where large numbers of people are crowded together under poor hygienic conditions, e.g. in prisons or on overcrowded ships, in those overcrowded hospitals, which were called "Nosokomeion" in the Byzantine world and thus might well have been institutions where nursing of sick people was done, specific epidemic diseases occurred which were rarely found in individuals living in freedom or at their domiciles. Like all other epidemics, they were thought to be attributed to a miasma transported by the air and resulting from bad vapours, and it was for two milleniums that this remained the explanation for infectiosity. As in the hospitals before introduction of anti- and asepsis wound-healing per secundam, i.e. purulence, was regarded as normal and pus was called "Pus bonum and laudabile", which was thought to be the supposition for wound-healing and was the reason for the infernal stench which one could smell. One attributed the occurrence of miasma to this component. It was therefore attempted to combat the hospital infections by all means with desodorizing procedures, thus trying primarily to suppress the stench by frequent whitewashing of the rooms, spraying of vinegar, by burning powder and even using precious incense. On the other hand, various infectious diseases could easily be brought into those overcrowded hospitals, where often three up to six patients had to share one bed, so that still in 1865 no less a person than the famous Theodor Billroth (1829-1894) felt himself obliged to warn of the dangers of a stay in hospital. The danger of "hospitalism" or of "nosocomial infection" let the rich refrain from going into a hospital, until the progress in surgery, which was initiated by the introduction of narcosis, allowed surgical treatment only to be effected in hospitals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)