American journal of nephrology
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Biography Historical Article
The Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) and the kidney.
Andreas Vesalius was born in Brussels on December 31, 1514 from a long line of physicians. He died in Zante in 1564. He was a typical son of the Renaissance. ⋯ The kidney was a fascinating organ to Vesalius, whose function, particularly regarding the production of urine, he did not fully grasp. He makes short work of the 'perforated membrane theory' which was the current conception of the origin of urine in the kidney. Andreas Vesalius broke with the established rigid and fabricated way of teaching anatomy, and introduced the modern concept of learning based on personal observations, using illustration combined with a critical spirit and sense of experiment.
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Biography Historical Article
Medicinal plants for the treatment of urogenital tract pathologies according to Dioscorides' De Materia Medica.
The De Materia Medica of the Greek Dioscorides reports about 200 plants used for the treatment of pathologies of the urogenital tract during the 1st century AD. On the basis of explicit and implicit affirmations by Dioscorides, a theoretical system concerning the specific properties of these plants has been attempted. Comparison of the species reported by Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder for renal affections does not support the thesis of a close relationship between De Materia Medica and the Naturalis Historia.
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Biography Historical Article
The parallels between Asclepian and Hippocratic medicine on the island of Kos.
At the end of the 20th century, Hippocratic medicine--which developed at the cross-roads between the occidental and oriental civilisations--acts as a link, a bridge and a symbol for the need to combine both the experience of traditional (Eastern) and the trends of modern (Western) medicine. Hippocratic medicine is one vital pathway to the proper study of the evolution of the medical art. Not only is it the beginning of the art and science of medicine, but modern medicine can still learn from the Hellenic medicine of ancient Greece. ⋯ Hippocratic bedside examination has not died, but is merely pushed aside temporarily by modern technology. The fact that ancient Hellenic medicine was based on the coexistence of both Asclepian (traditional) and Hippocratic (rational) medicine on the island of Kos reveals and symbolises the necessary coexistence and cooperation of both systems, a synthesis of their concepts being essential to solve the problems threatening the future of humankind. Hellenic medicine serves to highlight that the parallels between Asclepian and Hippocratic medicine are closer than medical historians usually realise, and that alternative medicine may function in a complementary way to conventional primary medical care.