Vivian Nutton

Bio: Vivian Nutton is an academic researcher from Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine. The author has contributed to research in topics: History of medicine & Hippocratic Oath. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 162 publications receiving 2013 citations. Previous affiliations of Vivian Nutton include Wellcome Trust & University of Cambridge.

The seeds of disease: An explanation of contagion and infection from the Greeks to the Renaissance

Abstract: \"AN interesting problem, to which I hope to return.\" Thus, in 1915, Karl Sudhoff ended a brief note on Galen's views on \"seeds of plague\", but the hope was never fulfilled, and, despite citation in bibliographies, Sudhoff's little article, buried deep in the wartime pages of the Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin, excited no scholarly attention whatsoever.' This was hardly surprising, for Sudhoff himself appeared to distrust his own conclusion that Galen had in fact prefigured Fracastoro's celebrated theory of seeds of diseases and was prepared to countenance, at least briefly, the idea that some diseases were specific entities which propagated by means of their seeds. But Galenic scholarship has moved on, albeit slowly, since Sudhoff's day, and the modern picture of Galen is of a doctor far less logical, systematic and consistent than he once appeared, and more ready to accept for his own immediate purposes ideas and examples from others that did not always fit with his overall schema of humoral medicine. Thus, while supporting Sudhoff's observations, I shall also show in this paper how Galen's (and, indeed, the Hippocratics') general philosophical views militated against the further development of any ontological theory of disease. Galen wrote of seeds of disease in a context of contagion and communicable diseases, and this paper will also have to concern itself, although not at great length, with ancient ideas and perceptions of contagion. Historians have occasionally denied to the doctors of antiquity a knowledge of contagion on the grounds that they had no theory of seeds of disease or of germs, but this is to confuse an appreciation of contagion qua contagiousness with one explanation of its mechanics. A belief in a theory of seeds presupposes a belief in contagious (or communicable) diseases, but the reverse is not true, for there were always other possible hypotheses, like that of putrid air, to explain why, for instance, phthisis was easily caught. Usually, contagion was

The monstrous races in medieval art and thought

Abstract: 'Scientists and Charlatans' (pp. 257-331), Gillispie goes on to show doctors endeavouring to define more clearly the contours of their profession by attacking what they saw as medical quacks. Entertaining full-dress treatments of the medical careers of Mesmer and Marat illuminate the general theme. Gillispie's general thesis is not, it is true, novel in regard to medical science. However, the book's breadth of scope allows medical developments to be placed against the wider panorama of Enlightenment science. The biographical and institutional approach may at times lack theoretical edge; but it makes for diverting as well as instructive reading. At the end, one emerges with a clearer sense of the world of emulation and research, government sponsorship and private patronage, professional overlaps and personal quirks and eccentricities which Enlightenment scientists inhabited. Colin Jones Department of History, University of Exeter

Herophilus: the art of medicine in early Alexandria

Abstract: The herophilus the art of medicine in early alexandria that we provide for you will be ultimate to give preference. This reading book is your chosen book to accompany you when in your free time, in your lonely. This kind of book can help you to heal the lonely and get or add the inspirations to be more inoperative. Yeah, book as the widow of the world can be very inspiring manners. As here, this book is also created by an inspiring author that can make influences of you to do more.

Paracelsus. An introduction to philosophical medicine in the era of the Renaissance

Abstract: language; this is followed by a little on texts available, followed in turn by a long discussion of the taxonomy of such texts and a defence of the study of \"academic\" or \"learned\" vernacular texts. There is much to be learned here, although the author has not attempted a coherent study. Bert S. Hall devotes himself to considering problems of understanding and interpreting mostly published texts in the history of late medieval technology (nothing medical here); while Bernard Cohen's 'Thrice revealed Newton' is a detailed history of the publication of Newton's writings from 1687 to 1980. This is an excellent introduction for the novice (although, curiously it omits several seventeenthand eighteenth-century publications), but, of course, there is nothing of specifically medical interest here. The historian of medicine would profit from Drake's exceptionally cogent account, from Voigts' specialized analysis and, for correspondence, from Beaulieu's survey. Marie Boas Hall Tackley, Oxford

A Complete Bibliography of Publications in Isis, 2000{2009

Abstract: accademiche [38]. Ada [45]. Adrian [45]. African [56]. Age [39, 49, 61]. Al [23]. Al-Rawi [23]. Aldous [68]. Alex [15]. Allure [46]. America [60, 66]. American [49, 69, 61, 52]. ancienne [25]. Andreas [28]. Angela [42]. Animals [16]. Ann [26]. Anna [19, 47]. Annotated [46]. Annotations [28]. Anti [37]. Anti-Copernican [37]. Antibiotic [64]. Anxiety [51]. Apocalyptic [61]. Archaeology [26]. Ark [36]. Artisan [32]. Asylum [48]. Atri [54]. Audra [65]. Australia [41]. Authorship [15]. Axelle [29].

Excess Dosing of Antiplatelet and Antithrombin Agents in the Treatment of Non-ST-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes

Abstract: ContextEffective medical care assumes delivery of evidence-based medicines to appropriate patients with doses comparable to those studied.ObjectiveTo investigate dosing of unfractionated heparin (UFH), low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH), and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, and the association between dosing and major outcomes.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsA prospective observational analysis in 387 US academic and nonacademic hospitals of 30 136 patients from the CRUSADE (Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines) National Quality Improvement Initiative Registry who had non–ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS) with chest pain and either positive electrocardiograms or cardiac biomarkers between January 1 and September 30, 2004.Main Outcome MeasuresExcessive dosing of UFH, LMWH, and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and major clinical outcomes, including bleeding, in-hospital mortality, and length of stay.ResultsA total of 3354 patients (42%) with NSTE ACS who were administered antithrombotic agents received at least 1 initial dose outside the recommended range. An excess dose was administered to 2934 patients (32.8%) treated with UFH, 1378 (13.8%) treated with LMWH, and 2784 (26.8%) treated with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Factors associated with excess dosing included older age, as well as female sex, renal insufficiency, low body weight, diabetes mellitus, and congestive heart failure. Relative to those patients not administered excess dosages, patients with excess dosages of UFH, LMWH, and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors either tended toward or had higher risks for major bleeding (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-1.26; OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.11-1.74; and OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.10-1.68; respectively). Bleeding increased relative to the degree of excess dose and to the number of agents administered in excess (6.6% [237/3590] if neither heparin nor glycoprotein IIb/IIIa excess vs 22.2% [93/419] if both excess). Mortality and length of stay were also higher among those patients administered excess dosing. We estimated that 15% (400/2766) of major bleeding in this population may be attributable to excess dosing.ConclusionsPatients with NSTE ACS treated in the community often receive excess doses of antithrombotic therapy. Dosing errors occur more often in vulnerable populations and predict an increased risk of major bleeding.

Health, Civilization and the State: A History of Public Health from Ancient to Modern Times

Abstract: This book examines the social, economic and political issues of public health provision in historical perspective. It outlines the development of public health in Britain, Continental Europe and the United States from the ancient world through to the modern state. It includes discussion of: * pestilence, public order and morality in pre-modern times * the Enlightenment and its effects * centralization in Victorian Britain * localization of health care in the United States * population issues and family welfare * the rise of the classic welfare state * attitudes towards public health into the twenty-first century.

Origin and Uses of Primum Non Nocere—Above All, Do No Harm!

Abstract: The so-called Hippocratic injunction to do no harm has been an axiom central to clinical pharmacology and to the education of medical and graduate students. With the recent reexamination of the nature and magnitude of adverse reactions to drugs, the purposes of this research and review were to discover the origin of this unique Latin expression. It has been reported that the author was neither Hippocrates nor Galen. Searches of writings back to the Middle Ages have uncovered the appearance of the axiom as expressed in English, coupled with its unique Latin, in 1860, with attribution to the English physician, Thomas Sydenham. Commonly used in the late 1800s into the early decades of the 1900s, it was nearly exclusively transmitted orally; it rarely appeared in print in the early 20th century. Its applicability and limitations as a guide to the ethical practice of medicine and pharmacological research are discussed. Despite insufficiencies, it remains a potent reminder that every medical and pharmacological decision carries the potential for harm.