Pioneer of Chinese Ophthalmology--130th Anniversary of Beijing Tongren Hospital

Much has been achieved in clinical and scientific research in the past 130 years by Beijing Tongren Hospital, which has evolved from an eye clinic to a comprehensive hospital with an ophthalmology department known as one of the best in China. This article presents the most historic moments and events in the development of a hospital with the largest eye care service volume. In addition, given the leading position of Tongren, the development of ophthalmology in Tongren is also the epitome of the development of modern ophthalmology in China. Beijing Institute of Ophthalmology (BIO) was established in 1959 as an affiliated institution under Tongren, aiming at carrying out applied science and basic science research, and directors of BIO have thus far served 4 terms as president of the Chinese Ophthalmological Society. In 2002, Beijing Tongren Eye Center (hereafter referred to as the Eye Center) was established to combine all the ophthalmic resources within Tongren. In 2017, the Eye Center alone had a surgical volume of 78,223, with surgeries for cataract, refractive errors, fundus, glaucoma, and corneal disease being the 5 most common, and 902,409 outpatient visits. Equipped with the leading experts and equipment, Tongren is dedicated to the battle against major eye diseases by carrying out large population-based epidemiological surveys and basic science research on pathogenesis and effective treatments, thereby making contributions to the development of the science of ophthalmology along with the delivery of eye care services in China and beyond.

Italian prisoners with tuberculosis in the early nineteenth century: the experience in the Pianosa prison hospital

In the late nineteenth century, with industrial growth and the resulting mass urbanisation, tuberculosis represented a plague mainly among the poor social classes. The outdated and crowded Italian prisons (formerly old monasteries) during the early 1900s were insufficient to "host" the multitude of inmates condemned or waiting for judgment. Italian prisoners were beset by hunger and poor hygiene facilities. Clothes did not differ between winter and summer. The Criminal Sanatorium of Pianosa was officially inaugurated in 1907, but from the 1860s it had been set up to host an agricultural penal colony. Here we report the excellent results obtained between 1907 and 1909 in the management of tuberculosis among prisoners in Pianosa, where surgery was also available. In those times, climate therapy with an enriched and varied nutrition was the only effective treatment for tuberculosis. Overall, of the 913 prisoners housed in Pianosa in that period and according to the acknowledged scientific criteria, the following results were achieved: complete cure in 182, improvement in 416, mild amelioration in 94, worsening in 80, no change in 20. The number of prisoners who died or were transferred to another prison is unknown. The case series of the prison hospital in Pianosa may be reconstructed thanks to data published by the Director Roberto Passini. The better outcome of the prisoners in Pianosa, in comparison with inmates of other Italian institutions, was due both to treatment standards (climate, nutritional, hygienic, and surgical) and to the proportionally longer period of stay in Pianosa for prisoners with already confirmed detention periods.

[The Hospital de Especialidades "Bernardo Sepúlveda Gutiérrez", and the generation of knowledge]

The history of the Hospital de Especialidades "Bernardo Sepúlveda Gutiérrez," formerly called Hospital General del Centro Médico Nacional, has been marked by ups and downs, as well as by the development of cutting-edge medical knowledge. In this supplement we show a series of articles, whose authors belong in their entirety to that hospital.

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases at Endsleigh Gardens, Euston--1920-1939

From 1920 until 1939, London's Hospital for Tropical Diseases sponsored by the Seamen's Hospital Society was located at Endsleigh Gardens, Euston. Unfortunately, written records of that era were destroyed in air raids on Greenwich in 1940 and 1941. Oral reminiscences documented in this paper help remedy this loss.

[Four stages in the history of the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI of the IMSS]

This document presents four stages in the history of the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI (Centro Médico Nacional XXI Century) of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. The first stage started at the end of the third decade of the twentieth century and ended in 1961, it corresponded to the conception, planning and construction of what was to be the Centro Médico del Distrito Federal (Centro Médico of the Distrito Federal) belonging to the Secretaría de Salubridad y Asistencia (Ministry of Health and Assistance). The second stage began when the Center was acquired by the Institute, then was known like Centro Médico Nacional (Centro Médico Nacional ), being put into full operation in 1963, more than twenty-two years later, in 1985, an earthquake virtually ended it, immediately began its reconstruction, finishing the second stage. In 1989 began the third stage, different and new buildings complemented or replaced the structures damaged or destroyed by the earthquake which formed the now Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI (Centro Médico Nacional XXI Century). In 2004 the fourth stage opened when the four hospitals of the Center were categorized like Unidades Médicas de Alta Especialidad (High Specialized Medical Units).

Serendipity: a personal tale of two biographies, William Richard Gowers (1845-1915) and his son Ernest (1880-1966)

Between 2004 and 2012, the author wrote two biographies, the first of 20th century civil servant Ernest Gowers and the second of his father the Victorian neurologist William Richard Gowers. This article describes the author's experience conducting the research for two biographies at a time when the research tools available were rapidly shifting from paper-based to digital records. Technological aids have made the preliminary research of historians easier, but they have not taken the place of hard copy archive-based research. While the paper will focus primarily on the biography of William Richard Gowers, the author describes the research methods she employed to help reveal the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of both men, each of whom left his own intellectual legacy.

The Elephant Logo for the Turner Dental Hospital and School, Manchester

The elephant logo for the Turner Dental Hospital and School is illustrated and the design is attributed to Lady Worthington, wife of the architect Sir Hubert Worthington.

[Inception of institutionalization of clinical neurology in Munich (1913-1933): with particular focus on Eugen von Malaisé]

At the University of Munich the teaching and treatment of neurological diseases had been covered by internists since the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Under the direction of Bumke the psychiatric clinic also laid claim to the representation of neurology starting in 1924. However, the military departments for nerve- and brain-injured soldiers, which were founded during WWI, developed into non-academic neurological treatment centres in Munich with donations from the German-American philanthropist Heckscher and the initiative of war invalids organisations. In 1925 the Heckscher Nerven-Heil- und Forschungsanstalt was established as the first neurological hospital in Munich. The main characters involved in this development were the neurologist Eugen von Malaisé and the psychiatrist Max Isserlin. With the early death of von Malaisé in 1923 neurology in Munich lost an important advocate of its institutional independence. The dismissal, prosecution and expulsion of the Jewish chief physician Isserlin was the second heavy blow to the efforts towards autonomy of neurology in Munich.

The Brisbane Dental Hospital Building: "The Palace" An Era Ends

Constitutional, educational, humanitarian and political considerations underpinned the design and construction of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building, often colloquially referred to as "The Palace." The Queensland Heritage Council's listing of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building on The Queensland Heritage Register in 1999 confirms the cultural significance of Nowland's architectural signature, the historical importance of the Wickham Park precinct and prior students' connection with the building. Influences on decisions determining the location, grand design and timing of construction of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building emanated from a far bigger and largely unrecorded political picture. The authors argue that the political context in two tiers of government, the timing and nature of the proposal, town planning issues, the exigencies of the caries epidemic and Forgan Smith's post-Depression economic reconstruction across Queensland underpinned the project. Hanlon's personal attributes and disdain for the autonomy of the dental profession, together with his desire to reform dental education and to establish statewide government-administred dental clinics, were also relevant. Accordingly, the BDHD portrayed aspiration, purpose, symbolism, and vision. This paper, essentially an integration of dental and mainstream history, assembles and analyzes hitherto scattered and unpublished evidence to fill a gap in the current literature.

"An army of reformed drunkards and clergymen": the medicalization of habitual drunkenness, 1857-1910

Historians have recognized that men with drinking problems were not simply the passive subjects of medical reform and urban social control in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America but also actively shaped the partial medicalization of habitual drunkenness. The role played by evangelical religion in constituting their agency and in the historical process of medicalization has not been adequately explored, however. A post-Civil War evangelical reform culture supported institutions that treated inebriates along voluntary, religious lines and lionized former drunkards who publicly promoted a spiritual cure for habitual drunkenness. This article documents the historical development and characteristic practices of this reform culture, the voluntarist treatment institutions associated with it, and the hostile reaction that developed among medical reformers who sought to treat intemperance as a disease called inebriety. Those physicians' attempts to promote therapeutic coercion for inebriates as medical orthodoxy and to deprive voluntarist institutions of public recognition failed, as did their efforts to characterize reformed drunkards who endorsed voluntary cures as suffering from delusions arising from their disease. Instead, evangelical traditions continued to empower reformed drunkards to publicize their own views on their malady which laid the groundwork for continued public interest in alcoholics' personal narratives in the twentieth century. Meanwhile, institutions that accommodated inebriates' voluntarist preferences proliferated after 1890, marginalizing the medical inebriety movement and its coercive therapeutics.

Hugh Neill (1806-64) and the early years of the Liverpool Ophthalmic Infirmary

This account of the early history of ophthalmology in Liverpool refers particularly to Hugh Neill, one of the many Edinburgh-educated surgeons working in Liverpool during the early 19th century.

[Prof. Masao Ota was interested in Kaisyun Hospital of Kumamoto]

From among the materials of Masao Ota, in the Library of Tokyo University, a letter (1931) was found from Isamu Miyake, prof. of Dermatology, Kumamoto Medical College. Its contents was some information on Kaisyun Hospital (The Kumamoto Hospital of the Resurrection of Hope, leprosy hospital), A calendar (the 1930s) of Kaisyun Hospital was also found in Riddell & Wright's Memorial Museum. This calendar was written in English, and it was to ask for the British and American sponsors to contribute. It includes a lot of articles related to leprosy like Riddell's article. Some new findings related to leprosy at that time were recognized from this calendar.

Beware of the biologicals--hospitals may die: the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland (1951-2010)

The first patient entered the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland in July 1951. From that point on, the hospital helped patients suffering from rheumatic disorders. Specialists in the hospital actively developed treatments and published a large number of scientific articles in international journals. The hospital was well known internationally among people working in the field. Progress in the development of disease-modifying medication (biological agents in particular) has dramatically improved the life of patients with rheumatic diseases, but all effective treatments may also have adverse effects. In this article, we briefly review the history of the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, which was closed permanently in March 2010 due to bankruptcy. The economical difficulties were caused primarily by the progress made in disease-modifying therapy, which decreased the need of rehabilitation and operative treatment of patients with rheumatic diseases. It seems that a great success in biological agents can carry "serious adverse effects", which may kill hospitals. This is an important primary observation, which should be noticed when the future of specialised institutes is planned.

[Incurable disease in Spain during the 19th century. The Hospital para Hombres Incurables Nuestra Señora del Carmen]

This paper examines the State's assumption of medical care for patients with "permanent needs" in 19th century Spain. These patients were the incurably ill, the chronically ill and the elderly. This process is contextualized within the liberal reforms of the Spanish healthcare system in the reign of Isabel 11 (1833-1868). The goal of these reforms was the creation and consolidation of a national health system that would gradually replace the religious health charities. Healthcare reform became necessary due to the increase in migration that started in the 1830's and intensified in the 1850's. Traditional care networks formed by the family, local community and religious charities were no longer available to those who had left their village or town. In addition, many religious charities were bankrupted by the seizure of their properties in a programme of confiscation. Similar healthcare reform processes were taking place in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, among other European countries, and involved significant changes in the lives of patients, who became strictly controlled and medicalised. My aim was to identify changes in the patients' experience of illness through a case study of the living conditions of inmates at the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Hospital for Incurable Men, based in Madrid from 1852 to 1949. This was one of the institutions devoted to caring for patients with "permanent needs" and was under the direct control of the General State Administration.

The general NFP hospital model

Throughout the past 30 years, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the proliferation of new forms of health care delivery organizations that challenge and compete with general NFP community hospitals. Traditionally, the health care system in the United States has been dominated by general NFP (NFP) voluntary hospitals. With the number of for-profit general hospitals, physician-owned specialty hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers increasing, a question arises: “Why is the general NFP community hospital the dominant model?” In order to address this question, this paper reexamines the history of the hospital industry. By understanding how the “general NFP hospital” model emerged and dominated, we attempt to explain the current dominance of general NFP hospitals in the ever changing hospital industry in the United States.

[Biography and bibliography of Francesco Fede, the founder of Italian pediatrics]

For the first time, an overall study of the life and works of Francesco Fede, the founder of Italian pediatrics, has been carried out. Unpublished biographical data was collected and the complete bibliographic works of Fede were presented. Fede is the hallmark of both scientific matter, which reached a climax in the definition of the Riga and Fede illness, and for his disinterested dedication as a Member of Parliament to foster development in didactics, research and assistance for pediatrics.

Sounding the 'citizen-patient': the politics of voice at the Hospice Des Quinze-vingts in post-revolutionary Paris

This essay explores new models of the citizen-patient by attending to the post-Revolutionary blind 'voice'. Voice, in both a literal and figurative sense, was central to the way in which members of the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts, an institution for the blind and partially sighted, interacted with those in the community. Musical voices had been used by members to collect alms and to project the particular spiritual principle of their institution since its foundation in the thirteenth century. At the time of the Revolution, the Quinze-Vingts voice was understood by some political authorities as an exemplary call of humanity. Yet many others perceived it as deeply threatening. After 1800, productive dialogue between those in political control and Quinze-Vingts blind members broke down. Authorities attempted to silence the voice of members through the control of blind musicians and institutional management. The Quinze-Vingts blind continued to reassert their voices until around 1850, providing a powerful form of resistance to political control. The blind 'voice' ultimately recognised the right of the citizen-patient to dialogue with their political carers.

[Chebarkulsky military sanatorium]

The military sanatorium "Chebarkulsky" lies in resort zone of Southern Ural in 75 km to the west from Chelyabinsk. Now-days the hospital is adjusted to treatment cardiovascular system and neurotic system, respiratory organ not tuberculosis character, diseases of locomotor apparatus, possible to accept up to 200 patients. Sanatorium "Chebarkulsky" take a worthy place among other sanatoriums of Southern Ural, such as "Kisegach", "Elovoe", "Sosnovaya Gorka", "Lesnaya Skazka".

"A dictate of both interest and mercy"? Slave hospitals in the antebellum South

As a contribution to debates on slave health and welfare, this article investigates the variety, functions, and overall significance of infirmaries for the enslaved in the antebellum South. Newspapers, case histories, and surviving institutional records of antebellum Southern infirmaries providing medical treatment for slaves offer a unique opportunity to examine the development of modern American medicine within the "peculiar institution," and to explore a complex site of interactions between the enslaved, physicians, and slave owners. The world of the medical college hospital in South Carolina and an experimenting clinic in Alabama are reconstructed using newspapers and medical case histories. The Patient Register of the Hotel Dieu (1859-64) and the Admission Book of Touro Infirmary (1855-60) are used to highlight the types of enslaved patients sent to these two New Orleans commercial hospitals and to explore connections between the practice of medicine and the business of slave trading in the city. In addition to providing physicians with a steady income, slave infirmaries were key players in the domestic slave trade, as well as mechanisms for professionalization and the mobilization of medical ideas in the American South.

Chapter 21: special hospitals in neurology and neurosurgery

Central to medicine is often where care and treatment are provided. Whereas today hospitals are the main locations to deliver medical help, in history we find different places for care and treatment. This chapter deals with these different places beginning in antiquity and sketching, e.g., the Greek asclepieion or the Roman valetudinarium. The roots of the modern hospital lie in the Middle Ages. Byzantine, Islamic as well as Christian hospitals are described. Around 1800 the rise of the general hospital began. Three ways into modernity are sketched: the British, the German and the French development of hospitals during the 18th and 19th century. Subsequently the emergence of special hospitals in Great Britain and in Germany is depicted. Whereas in Great Britain neurology had its roots as a specialty at the Queen Square Hospital, development in Germany differed. Here we can find different special neurological departments in general hospitals. The description of the emergence of neurotraumatological and neurosurgical special hospitals follows. Particularly World War I had a deep impact on the development of those facilities. Finally the history of neurotraumatology and neurology in Great Britain and Germany after World War II is sketched.

[Judging reliably. Medical authority and the ability to discriminate between the clean and the unclean]

The article aims to explore the physicians' role at the Nuremberg "Sondersiechenalmosen" in the 15th and 16th centuries. Special attention is given to the question as to how the city's physicians, who claimed expert status superior to other healers and who had special authority to advise the authorities in keeping the city clean and healthy, declared and explained their problems in connection with the "examen leprosorum" on the occasion of the "Sondersiechenschau". From 1394 the city had opened its gates for three days in Holy Week leading up to Easter to offer clerical assistance, food and shelter to foreign lepers. This meant that people were cared for who would not usually have been admitted because they were foreigners as well as being leprous. The physicians' task within that charity was to discriminate between the leprous and foreign beggars, a task which caused serious problems when, in the 16th century, at times two thousand and more foreigners entered the imperial city during Holy Week. When, in 1571, the Nuremberg physician Kammermeister proposed to establish a "Collegium Medicum" in the city of Nuremberg, he described the procedure extensively. The authorities ignored the initial claim to establish a "Collegium Medicum" but requested each academically trained physician of the city to give a personal statement on the physicians' ability to seriously judge the foreigners who claimed to be leprous. Based primarily on these statements, the article hopes to shed some light on the Nuremberg "Sondersiechenalmosen", on the "examen leprosorum", and on the relation between medical judgement and medical authority in general.

Maud Forrester-Brown (1885-1970): Britain's first woman orthopaedic surgeon

In an era when few women achieved consultant surgical status, Miss Forrester-Brown proved not only a pioneer orthopaedic surgeon but also demonstrated that her sex was no bar to this physically demanding specialty. Virtually on her own she consolidated a series of clinics throughout three counties, elevating the Bath and Wessex Orthopaedic Hospital to national prominence. In addition to her books and journal communications, she maintained strong links with distinguished orthopaedic surgeons in Europe and America to keep abreast of innovations beneficial to her patients. Yet her shoulder was not always at the wheel, for she enjoyed horse-riding, ski-ing and swimming, and she was deeply interested in literature and art.

[50th anniversery of neurology in Berne]

In 1958 a neurological section of the internal medicine was founded. Eight years late it became an independent department. After a very modest start neurology developped to an important and renowned institution. This development was favoured by the increasing importance of the neurosciences. From 1958 until his premature death in 1960 Bernese neurology was directed by Rolf Magun. From 1962 to 1990 it was headed by Marco Mumenthaler and since then by Christian W. Hess.

[The wind prophylaxis. Repressive and sanitary institutions in Argentina's Patagonia, 1880-1940]

This article focuses on the study of some social control technologies and discourses, displayed in Argentina's provinces between 1880 and 1940, with particular reference to the so-called 'Territorios Nacionales' of La Pampa Río Negro and Neuquén, which were submitted to a direct federal authority. THe main purpose is to analyze - within these areas- - the building of repressive and sanitary institutions (i.e., police, prisons, asylums, hospitals) as well as the enforcement of positivists studying and classifying methodologies, intended to identify 'abnormality'. A straight and permanent rule of these "territorios Nacionales' on the federal State could have meant a longer attention to their social and economic development through a direct and intense presence of national, modernizing, positivist institutions. However, a deeper historical study of repressive and sanitary institutions allows to arrive to completely different conclusions. The sources show that these institutions had numerous daily problems, were frequently and severely under-budgeted and were obliged to develop not originally forseen functions and tasks. These situations imply revising not only these institutions' real regulation capacities but also the very existence of a generalized, efficient social control programme in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century, as many scholars focused on Buenos Aires's study case have already argued.

[Establishment and activity of PoKuNyoKwan]

PoKuNyoKwan was established in 1887 by Meta Howard, a female doctor who was dispatched from Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, an evangelical branch affiliated with U.S. North Methodist Church. PoKuNyoKwan was equipped with dispensaries, waiting rooms, pharmacies, warehouses, operating rooms, and wards for about 30 patients. It used a traditional Korean house, which was renovated for its medical purpose, in Ewha Haktang. Residing in Chung Dong, the medical institution had taken care of women's mental and physical health for about 25 years, until it was merged with East Gate Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital in 1912, and then its dispensary function was abolished in 1913. Medical missionaries (Meta Howard, Rosetta Sherwood, Mary M. Cutler, Emma Ernsberger, Esther K. Pak, Amanda F. Hillman) and nurse missionaries (Ella Lewis, Margaret J. Edmunds, Alta I. Morrison, Naomi A. Anderson), who were professionally trained in the United States, and their helpers, who were trained by those missionaries, managed PoKuNyoKwan. Nurses who were educated in Nurses' Training School, which was also established by PoKuNyoKwan, helped to run the institution as well. At the beginning, they usually had worked as a team of one medical missionary and three helpers. Since its establishment in 1903, however, the helpers began to enter the Nurses' Training School to become professional nurses, and the helpers eventually faded out because of the proliferation of those nurses. PoKuNyoKwan did not only offer medical services but also executed educational and evangelical activities. Medical missionaries struggled to overcome Koreans' ignorance and prejudice against westerners and western medical services, while they took care of their patients at office, for calls, and in hospital dispensaries. Enlightening the public by criticizing Korean traditional medical treatments including fork remedies, acupuncture, and superstitions, they helped modernization of medical systems in Korea. In the area of education, Rosetta Sherwood taught helpers basic medical science to make them regular medical staff members, and Margaret J. Edmunds established the Nurses' Training School in PoKuNyoKwan for the first time in Korea. The nurses who graduated from the school worked at PoKuNyoKwan and some other medical institutions. Evangelical activities included Bible study in the waiting rooms of PoKuNyoKwan and prayer meeting on Sunday for those who were treated in PoKuNyoKwan. The institution in the end worked as a spot for spreading Christianity in Korea. As the first women's hospital, PoKuNyoKwan attempted to educate female doctors. Eventually, it played a role as a cradle to produce Esther K Pak, who was the first female doctor in Korea. The hospital also ran the first nurse training center. It was, in a real sense, the foundational institution to raise professional practitioner undertaking medical services in Korea. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that PoKuNyoKwan provided sound basis for the development of modem medical services for women in Korea.