Historical descriptions of nystagmus and abnormal involuntary eye movements in various ancient cultures

Original texts and expert translations from various ancient cultures covering a time span from the 2nd millennium BC to the ninth century AD were searched for historical observations of involuntary eye movements. Abnormal, spontaneous eye movements are an easily recognisable neuro-ophthalmological symptom that can be both congenital and acquired. Ocular oscillations termed 'hippos' by Hippocrates (460-370BC) and Galenos (129-216AD) are synonymous with nystagmus, a term first introduced in the eighteenth century. The original description of hippos suggests an innate onset, which retrospectively can be related to either congenital (infantile) nystagmus or continuous involuntary eye movements of the blind. Other descriptions of abnormal involuntary eye movements with different beating directions, possibly associated with vertigo, seizures or ear symptoms and their impact on patients' quality of life (e.g. oscillopsia, blurred vision) are preserved in many fragmentary ancient documents including papyrus scrolls and stone tablets from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Greece, Rome and the Middle East. Although the sparse original descriptions of the direction and type of eye movements may inspire daring medical interpretations, caution is required when attempting to assign them to distinct nystagmus forms according to our current clinical classification of ocular motor disorders.

Burn Care in the Greek and Roman Antiquity

The last century brought about more rapid new developments in the treatment of burns, which significantly lowered the mortality of burn injuries. However, burns were already treated in antiquity, where the threshold from spirituality to scientific medicine originated. The existing literature on burn treatment is very limited and there are many cross-references, some of them incorrect. The aim of this work by an interdisciplinary team of historians and physicians is to offer a more precise reproduction of the burn treatment of Greek and Roman antiquity using original texts in context and with a modern scientific background. There are many sources from ancient doctors on the subject of burn treatment, as well as the treatment of burned-out wounds and frostbite, which have not yet been mentioned. The literature research also showed an understanding of scientific contexts in ancient medicine, such as antiseptics or rheology. Interestingly, there was a change in burn medicine from everyday Greek medicine to Roman military medicine with other burn patterns. The care of patients using analgetics and the therapy of burn shock arose from the literature. The ancient world is considered to be the foundation of medicine, but it is believed to have been based mainly on shamanism rather than science. However, already more than two millennia ago, burns were correctly assessed and treated according to today’s scientific standards and scientific relationships were recognized.

Forgotten Mediterranean calving grounds of grey and North Atlantic right whales: evidence from Roman archaeological records

Right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) were extirpated from the eastern North Atlantic by commercial whaling. Grey whales (Eschrichtius robustus) disappeared from the entire North Atlantic in still-mysterious circumstances. Here, we test the hypotheses that both species previously occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, an area not currently considered part of their historical range. We used ancient DNA barcoding and collagen fingerprinting methods to taxonomically identify a rare set of 10 presumed whale bones from Roman and pre-Roman archaeological sites in the Strait of Gibraltar region, plus an additional bone from the Asturian coast. We identified three right whales, and three grey whales, demonstrating that the ranges of both of these species historically encompassed the Gibraltar region, probably including the Mediterranean Sea as calving grounds. Our results significantly extend the known range of the Atlantic grey whale, and suggest that 2000 years ago, right and grey whales were common when compared with other whale species. The disappearance of right and grey whales from the Mediterranean region is likely to have been accompanied by broader ecosystem impacts, including the disappearance of their predators (killer whales) and a reduction in marine primary productivity. The evidence that these two coastal and highly accessible species were present along the shores of the Roman Empire raises the hypothesis that they may have formed the basis of a forgotten whaling industry.

Contributions of Neuropsychology to the Study of Ancient Literature

The present work introduces the neuropsychological paradigm as a new approach to studying ancient literature. In the first part of the article, an epistemological framework for the proper use of neuropsychology in relation to ancient literature is presented. The article then discusses neuropsychological methods of studying different human experiences and dimensions already addressed by ancient literatures. The experiences of human encounters with gods among ancient cultures are first considered, through the contributions of Julian Jaynes and Eric R. Dodds. The concepts of right and left in the Bible, and that of soul are then discussed. Ecstatic experience in Paul of Tarsus is also presented, with a particular focus on glossolalia. Neuroscientific differences between mindful and unitive meditative practices are then described referring to ancient Buddhist literature, and finally a brief description of dreams in ancient Greek literature is proposed. Neuropsychology variously enables a more profound understanding of themes characterizing human experiences that ancient literature has already explored; these investigations prove that the collaboration of neuroscience and humanistic studies can return fruitful and interesting results.

Lead pollution recorded in Greenland ice indicates European emissions tracked plagues, wars, and imperial expansion during antiquity

Lead pollution in Arctic ice reflects midlatitude emissions from ancient lead-silver mining and smelting. The few reported measurements have been extrapolated to infer the performance of ancient economies, including comparisons of economic productivity and growth during the Roman Republican and Imperial periods. These studies were based on sparse sampling and inaccurate dating, limiting understanding of trends and specific linkages. Here we show, using a precisely dated record of estimated lead emissions between 1100 BCE and 800 CE derived from subannually resolved measurements in Greenland ice and detailed atmospheric transport modeling, that annual European lead emissions closely varied with historical events, including imperial expansion, wars, and major plagues. Emissions rose coeval with Phoenician expansion, accelerated during expanded Carthaginian and Roman mining primarily in the Iberian Peninsula, and reached a maximum under the Roman Empire. Emissions fluctuated synchronously with wars and political instability particularly during the Roman Republic, and plunged coincident with two major plagues in the second and third centuries, remaining low for >500 years. Bullion in silver coinage declined in parallel, reflecting the importance of lead-silver mining in ancient economies. Our results indicate sustained economic growth during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, terminated by the second-century Antonine plague.

Hippocrates the otolaryngologist: an epidemiological analysis of ear-throat-nose diseases in the Corpus Hippocraticum

INTRODUCTION

Hippocrates, a Greek physician during the fifth century BC., is often considered the father of medicine. The Corpus Hippocraticum comprising of 58 volumes was attributed to him alone for a long time. Nowadays, it is considered that several authors contributed to its creation between 450 and 150 BC., so over a period of 300 years. The objective of our study was to develop a nosological classification of all passages treating head and neck diseases.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We read and analyzed all volumes of the Corpus Hippocraticum in French translation and extracted all passages dealing with oto-rhino-laryngological and maxillo-facial conditions (n = 65). We classified all pathologies into five distinctive nosological groups: traumatic, infectious, malformation, cancerous and inflammatory Results: Traumatic diseases represented 36.9% (n = 24), infectious 52.3% (n= 34), malformation 0% (n = 0), cancerous 11.5% (n = 1) and inflammatory 9.3% (n= 6). These results represent the living conditions of this era, during which diseases were mostly of infectious or traumatic nature (wars, physical labor and recreational sporting activity, living together on close quarters, etc.).

CONCLUSION

The meticulously detailed observations of the corpus give us a precious insight into the early perception of diseases, their progression and early attempts of treatment.

Beekeeping from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages

Beekeeping had its origins in honey hunting-the opportunistic stealing of honey from wild honey bee nests. True beekeeping began when humans started providing artificial cavities within which the bees could build comb for the queen to lay her eggs and the workers could process honey. By 2450 BCE, the Egyptians had developed sophisticated apiculture, and, within two millennia, beekeeping with horizontal hives had spread throughout the Mediterranean. During Europe's Middle Ages, honey and wax became important commodities for trade, and beekeeping in skep, log, box, and tree hives flourished to meet the demand. Other species of honey bees contributed to the development and spread of beekeeping in Asia beginning around 300 BCE. Meanwhile, beekeeping evolved independently in Mesoamerica with the stingless bee Melipona beecheii, as documented by archaeological finds and written accounts that survived Spanish conquest.

[Traditional medicine and the present: the therapy of gout]

The authors describe the history of treatment of gout by using colchicine (colchicum; the active substance of Colchicum autumnale). The references to this plant and its effects (incl. several recipes for the preparation of remedies) in the gout treatment date back already from the antiquity, but the indisputable evidence of its use in the therapy of the disease in question comes only from the 6th century AD, by Alexander of Tralles. At present, colchicine became an officially preferred drug. Some other examples of medicines of plant origin (e.g. verbena), which were used already by ancient civilizations and are often chosen for therapy even today. The potential of medicinal drugs hasnt been completely exhausted yet.

Cross-cultural perspectives on music and musicality

Musical behaviours are universal across human populations and, at the same time, highly diverse in their structures, roles and cultural interpretations. Although laboratory studies of isolated listeners and music-makers have yielded important insights into sensorimotor and cognitive skills and their neural underpinnings, they have revealed little about the broader significance of music for individuals, peer groups and communities. This review presents a sampling of musical forms and coordinated musical activity across cultures, with the aim of highlighting key similarities and differences. The focus is on scholarly and everyday ideas about music--what it is and where it originates--as well the antiquity of music and the contribution of musical behaviour to ritual activity, social organization, caregiving and group cohesion. Synchronous arousal, action synchrony and imitative behaviours are among the means by which music facilitates social bonding. The commonalities and differences in musical forms and functions across cultures suggest new directions for ethnomusicology, music cognition and neuroscience, and a pivot away from the predominant scientific focus on instrumental music in the Western European tradition.

Hollow needle cataract aspiration in antiquity

The dislocation of the crystalline lens or couching technique was the predominant procedure to surgically remove cataracts until the 18th century A.D. However, in the Middle Ages, some Arab physicians tried to aspirate the opaque lens by means of a glass tube following a paracentesis. Some literary sources attributed the origins of this technique to Antyllus of Alexandria, a Greek surgeon who lived in the 2nd century A.D. in the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, this statement remains unclear and is probably the consequence of posterior interpretations or incorrect translations of the manuscripts. In recent years, the discovery of the hollow needles from Montbellet (France) and Viladamat (Spain), in archaeological settlements dated between the 1st century and 3rd century A.D., has reopened the possibility of cataract extraction as an option in the surgical management of soft cataracts in the antiquity. In any case, these findings are exceptional, and thus, probably this technique was not widely practised and very likely disparaged by the medical community.

[The Origin of Scientific Notions in the Circle of the Roman Accademiadella Virt¾ around 1550]

The Origin of Scientific Notions in the Circle of the Roman Accademia della Virtù around 1550. Between c. 1537 and 1555 a group of humanists, clerics, architects and philologists known as the so-called Accademia della Virtù got together in Rome to work on a program which was formulated in a letter by the Sienese humanist Claudio Tolomei in 1542 and published in 1547. Starting out with the intention to understand the only surviving antique book on architecture and architectural theory - Vitruvius' De architectura libri decem - the program describes a series of 24 books, eleven containing the classical text and its translation with commentaries, 13 books systematically illustrating and documenting all known and available material remains from Roman antiquity. This program for a scientific classical archaeology in a modern sense was not only intended to serve the intellectual curiosity of some humanist antiquarians but to help architects and their patrons to develop a new architecture of the same high quality as the idealized Roman examples. To achieve this practical as well as theoretical goal it was obviously necessary to re-create the antique vocabulary of architecture and its rules as well as to unify the contemporary usage of notions and norms in a canon. The first results of this project seem to be the In decem Libros M. Vitruvii Pollionis de Architectura Annotationes by Guillaume Philandrier (Rome, 1544) - up to this day a very valuable explanation of ambiguous parts in the Vitruvian text. Until the 1980s, it was believed that this book was the only outcome of the ambitious project; but then two codices of drawings after antique reliefs were identified as preparations for one of the other 23 volumes - and, because of their systematic approach, regarded as the 'first systematic archaeological book'. Now it seems that there are some other corpora of manuscripts and drawings documenting antique artifacts that should be regarded as results of the Accademia's work, too, showing antique buildings, inscriptions and coins. Other results of the unfinished project may be the theoretical and practical works of the two most influencial architects of the sixteenth century: Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola and Andrea Palladio.

The influence of theory on the formation of the infirmary during antiquity and the Middle Ages in the West

The modern infirmary is the evolutional product of the dialectic interface between medical theories at each time and the outcome of their application in clinical practice. The infirmary as we know it today did not exist during antiquity, but the different precursors of the modern hospital emerged as a result of the interaction between medical theory and practice. During antiquity the Hippocratic work decisively contributed to the creation of the Asklipieion, an institution with predetermined structure created to heal diseases. Later in antiquity new types of infirmaries appeared along with the evolution of private practice for physicians. Establishment of the first modern hospitals was an outstanding contribution of Islamic medicine during reign of the Islamic Empire. Although there was little progress in the development of medical theory in medieval West, evolution of the infirmary continued and was mostly influenced by Christian religion and charity. In Constantinople large medieval infirmaries were built, but patient care was frequently offered in monasteries by clergymen. Later on medicine and treatment of diseases were taken over by physicians and taught in universities, and medical theory continued on its course of evolution. It is obvious that the modern infirmary is not only a place for treating diseases, but rather the upshot of a series of advancements in science, the relations between people or even countries, and the way humanity perceives its nature and the future. Our research is focused on the interactive relationship between the evolution of medical theory and the infirmary as an institution during antiquity and the Middle Ages with particular emphasis on the Western World.

Bees diversified in the age of eudicots

Reliable estimates on the ages of the major bee clades are needed to further understand the evolutionary history of bees and their close association with flowering plants. Divergence times have been estimated for a few groups of bees, but no study has yet provided estimates for all major bee lineages. To date the origin of bees and their major clades, we first perform a phylogenetic analysis of bees including representatives from every extant family, subfamily and almost all tribes, using sequence data from seven genes. We then use this phylogeny to place 14 time calibration points based on information from the fossil record for an uncorrelated relaxed clock divergence time analysis taking into account uncertainties in phylogenetic relationships and the fossil record. We explore the effect of placing a hard upper age bound near the root of the tree and the effect of different topologies on our divergence time estimates. We estimate that crown bees originated approximately 123 Ma (million years ago) (113-132 Ma), concurrently with the origin or diversification of the eudicots, a group comprising 75 per cent of angiosperm species. All of the major bee clades are estimated to have originated during the Middle to Late Cretaceous, which is when angiosperms became the dominant group of land plants.