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The Spanish flu pandemic is considered the largest and most dangerous epidemic at the beginning of the 20th century affecting most of the world today. The Spanish flu pandemic did not bypass the territory of Croatia (at the time, Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy), nor its southern coastal region of Dalmatia and the city of Split. Using the example of the city Split, the paper analyses the spatial and demographic determinants of population mortality from the Spanish flu between 1918 and 1919, i.e., from March 1918 to April 1919. The paper is based on the data of the Church Death registers kept in the Archbishop’s Archives in Split and newspaper articles. The analysis of the spatial distribution of mortality within urban settlements showed that the number of deaths per urban settlement was significantly influenced by population density but also by the socio-economic conditions of the war and post-war period. The paper analyses the articles of the New Age that refer to the Spanish flu for monitoring the course and spread of the disease, as well as the reading of information but also shaping of public opinion. Analysis of social and demographic aspects of mortality caused by the pandemic in 1918 and 1919 in Split did not indicate any deviations from other areas of Croatia and the rest of the world. In this way, the age-sex, spatial and social framework of mortality and the media framework are analogues to other national and foreign researched areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Šibenik Foundling House was an institution that cared for abandoned children before their adoption. The paper analysed the accommodation capacities of the foundling house from 1886 to 1900, using registers of baptisms and deaths from the provincial hospital in Šibenik as the basis for the analysis. An analysis of the received children was conducted based on how they arrived at the site and the level of knowledge about their origin or identity. From 1886 to 1900, the Šibenik Foundling House received three hundred and seventy-eight abandoned children with a yearly average of 25.2 children. Two hundred and forty-three children were brought to the hospital by their mothers as newborns, and their identities were recorded in the baptism registers, constituting 60.15% of the total number of residents in the Foundling House. One hundred and six received infants were foundlings—children without known identity—comprising 26.24% of the total number of baptisms in the hospital. Twenty-nine children were born in the hospital and left by unmarried mothers in the care of the Foundling House, making up 7.18% of all entries in the register of baptisms. The monthly distribution of received children shows a balanced distribution. The mortality rate of these children in the Foundling House was 32.80%. Children who did not have names and surnames were given to them by the priest who baptised them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of the paper aim to present the foundation of the Department of Pathology at the University of Zagreb. The first years of the Department of Pathology, from 1918 to 1922, will be analysed in the paper. The emphasis is on the construction of the Department and the difficulties encountered at the same time. Also, persons who were crucial for the establishment of the Department of Pathology will be discussed. So far, the literature has mostly stated that the initiator of the Department of Pathology was Sergej Saltykow, a pathologist of Russian descent. Although Saltykow’s role is unquestionable, the aim is to present more persons who have more or less contributed to the establishment of the Department. Thus, more will be said about Vaclav Neumann, Đorđe Joanović, Walter Berlinger and others. Besides, the paper will provide a brief context focusing on the establishment of the School of Medicine and pathology in Zagreb before the foundation of the Department of Pathology. The Pathoanatomic Service of The Public Health Divisions in the City of Zagreb and Ljudevit Jurak, the first head of this institution, should certainly be pointed out. The Pathoanatomic Service played a key role in the development of forensic medicine and pathology in Croatia. In addition to available literature, the paper is based on archival materials found in the School of Medicine University of Zagreb archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the forerunner of the development of public health medicine since 1912, as well as the actions of Andrija Štampar as a municipal physician in the Nova Gradiška Posavina region from 1913 to 1918. The predecessors of public health medicine are considered in the context of the emergence of societies for the protection of public health in Belgrade and Zagreb, as well as the connection between Andrija Štampar and these societies. Analysing the archival material of the Croatian State Archive, laws, journals, and newspapers, the paper attempts to link the theoretical phase of Andrija Štampar’s work with the practical phase, beginning in 1912 with his work in Karlovac and his relocation to Nova Gradiška in 1913. The paper notes that Štampar had already laid the foundation for many of his future ideas at this stage, as can be observed in the example of his reflections on eugenics, which he has defended since 1912. His experiences of rehabilitation efforts after the epidemics of cholera and smallpox in the Nova Gradiška Posavina region and his work at the Red Cross military hospital in Nova Gradiška influenced the formation of the basic principles of social medicine and public health. Special attention was paid to the set of preventive and epidemiological measures that Štampar implemented during the 1913 - 1916 epidemics. He regarded them as “perfect”, and, ten years later, introduced them into the postulates of public health medicine. Andrija Štampar conceived the main part of his ideas under the influence of theoretical knowledge and practice until 1918, and thanks to his ability to perceive circumstances and opportunities within the newly created legal framework and with the support of Rockefeller donations, he turned them into a functional health policy, which has been implemented at the School of Public Health and the Institute of Hygiene since 1926. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folk medicine is a traditional medical practice in the general population, especially in rural areas. Traditional medicine methods used herbal remedies as well as human and animal substances and minerals. The most commonly used drugs in the treatment of eye diseases were drugs of plant origin like chamomile, eyebright and greater celandine, then drugs of human and animal origin like breast milk, saliva, honey, animal bile, and copper sulfate from mineral origin. There is little information in the literature discussing the folk treatment of ocular diseases. The aim of this paper is to show how ocular diseases were treated in folk medicine in Dalmatia during the 19th century. Efforts were also made to explain the reasons for such empirical treatment that was passed from generation to generation. At the end of the 19th, and especially at the beginning of the 20th century, modern and scientific ophthalmology developed in Dalmatia, but also throughout Croatia, first in large cities. So gradually, folk medicine in the treatment of eye diseases became more and more forgotten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes health and health care development in Zagreb in the 19th century, with special attention to the last period of the century, using articles from Liječnički vjesnik for analysis. The development of the hospital and public health system is being considered, as well as the modernisation of other areas - pharmacy and dentistry. In addition, the paper presents basic health enlightenment thoughts as well as their authors. In the end, a brief analysis of treatment success is made on several separate examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a reading of the ethnographic accounts that were written in accordance with the Osnova za sabiranje i proučavanje građe o narodnom životu (Foundations for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life) published in 1897, this paper attempts to outline some of the features of wet-nursing as specific breastfeeding related practices in rural areas at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Ethnographic accounts published in the Zbornik za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena (Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs) that are, with some retrospective insights, mainly focused on what were then contemporary practices, are approached in this paper as sources of the ethnology and the history of everyday life. Through connecting passages on breastfeeding and also passages that refer indirectly to breastfeeding, this paper underlines the importance of differentiation between the practices of regular wet-nursing (caused by a mother’s illness or her problems with breastfeeding) and occasional wet-nursing (because of a mother’s temporary, short-term absence). This paper also deals with the issue of (material) compensation for wet-nursing and, connected to this, with the relation between women’s efforts to earn an income on the one hand and women’s solidarity on the other. It also deals with the issue of the professionalization of wet-nursing that is not covered in the questions from Osnova (Foundations for Collecting and Studying Materials about Folk Life) and is only indicated in ethnographic accounts from the Zbornik (Journal of Folk Life and Traditions of South Slavs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical history of the city of Rijeka is a rich treasure trove of events, celebrities and valuable innovations in the field of healthcare. The historical development of Rijeka was largely determined by her geopolitical position as a border town with a multicultural population, marked by strong conflicts of interest and numerous identity turmoil. The great exodus of the domicile population of Italian nationality after World War II has significantly changed the social picture of the city. Among many of such esuli (immigrants) were brothers Giovanni (b. 1932) and Abdon (b. 1933) Pamich, whose lives are reminiscent of the fate of many displaced people from Rijeka who were forced to live in exile after the war. After leaving their hometown during the formative years of their childhood, they had successful careers in Italy in the fields of medicine and healthcare. The older brother Giovanni became a successful surgeon and the younger Abdon a psychologist. Along with his positions as the head of general surgery at the Monfalcone and Gorizia Hospitals, Giovanni Pamich was teaching at the University of Trieste. Abdon Pamich collaborated with the best Italian tennis players in the field of sports psychology, and was a psychologist for the Italian handball team. They both practiced athletics, and Abdon Pamich won the silver medal in speed walking at the 1958 European Championships in Sweden and the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In addition to emphasizing the achievements of the two brothers in the field of medicine, this paper also addresses the position of the migrant, which is highlighted in Robert Covaz’s book “Abdon Pamich, memorie di un marciatore (Rome, 2016), an exciting biography of an emigrant from Rijeka. The paper also explores the concept of thematizing the limits of differences and experiences of migration of Rijeka residents facing the existential issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzed texts of newspaper reports of suicides in Dalmatia that occurred in the period between the two world wars. Words used in headlines were analyzed separately. Suicides were statistically analyzed according to age, gender, method, location, and monthly distribution. Most of the cases were reported during May and June. During 1936 and 1937, there was a rapid increase of suicides in media coverage. There is no evidence that the number of suicides really increased during these years. Statistics show the existence of gender preferences for certain suicide methods. The morning was the most common time of day for suicide in Dalmatia. Newspapers were inappropriate according to today’s WHO instructions. Texts were full of details, the romanticization of suicide and violation of deceased person’s privacy. Results of the research showed that news reports did not cause mass suicide imitations. However, there are cases of individual imitations. In some micro-locations (smaller settlements and their surroundings), there is evidence that some cases were influenced by earlier suicides. However, the time period between original and imitated cases varies from few weeks to ten years. This shows that time is not variable in imitations performed in micro-locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the architecture of the Royal National Institute for the Insane in Stenjevec during its construction and the first years of its existence. Since the opening of the Institute in 1879 until the end of the World War I, there were numerous adaptations and extensions of the original capacities. The paper shows how these extensions reflected the existing paradigm of the institutional architecture in the second half of the 19th century. Architecture, under the influence of Pinel's "moral treatment" as a primary therapeutic approach to mental illnesses in the 19th century, was considered to be a remedy and its therapeutic importance in the context of psychiatry was not questioned. While early examples of the architecture of psychiatric hospitals copied prison construction and were adapted to control the mentally ill (e.g., the Viennese "Narrenturm"), later plans, such as linear and separate (pavilion), sought to simultaneously increase control effectiveness, act therapeutically and respond to some practical needs of the more crowded institutes. The Stenjevec Institute, designed by the Viennese architect Kuno Waidmann, was created exactly at the transition between the linear and the separate type. The institute, originally conceived as a linear type of institution, was later transformed into a separate or pavilion type institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the form and content of the sixteen scientific conferences "Rijeka and its Citizens in Medical History" ("Rijeka i Riječani u medicinskoj povjesnici") which were held in the period between 2000 and 2016 according to the archive data of the conference organizer Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture. It presents data about the beginning of science convention, some its organisational features and the number of participants. A total of 315 presentations, whose abstracts were published in individual conference's abstract books, were given at the sixteen conventions by 463 participants from Croatia and abroad. It is emphasized that the great number of the papers printed in extenso are published in the journal AMHA - Acta medico-historica Adriatica. Summarised quantity data on the number of presented papers, number of presenters and number of co-authored papers are given. Finally, a review of the significance of this convention within the regional, national and international aspect is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The founder of the Vienna School of Ophthalmology was Prof. Dr. Georg Joseph Beer, who founded the First University Eye Clinic in the Vienna General Hospital in 1812. Prof. Ferdinand von Arlt led it for 27 years from 1856 to 1883. As the First Eye Clinic became too small, the Second University Eye Clinic was founded in 1883 at the same hospital in Vienna. Since 1885 it had been led for 30 years by Prof. Ernst Fuchs. Many well-known ophthalmologists were leading those Viennese eye clinics. However, Arlt and Fuchs were the main representatives of the Vienna School of Ophthalmology, which was always characterised by the high standards in the diagnosis and therapy of eye diseases. Many Croatian ophthalmologists were educated by them or their students, and later they established eye departments in the major cities in Croatia and transmitted acquired knowledge and experience. The first eye departments in Croatia were formed at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The First University Eye Clinic in Croatia started to work in Zagreb in 1923. Our ophthalmologists transmitted the organisation of the clinics as they existed in Vienna, and that was the matrix form of all European clinics at that time. Therefore, the tradition of the Vienna School of Ophthalmology was passed on to the next generations. The paper also gives short biographies of Viennese and Croatian ophthalmologists and their mutual relations in education and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searching for an answer whether medicine is a science or an art, especially in today's time when the emphasis is on the biotechnological aspects of treatment, the intention of this paper is to reflect on the outcomes of the encounter of medicine and art. Those that are recognised at least in the complementarity of the methodology, creating additional life values. By presenting authentic actions, this is a call for additional health improvement interventions, without allowing the biopsychosocial approach to human integrity to be forgotten. The inspiration for this view was the prestigious title of the European Capital of Culture that the Town of Rijeka was awarded for the year 2020. This city is also a kind of capital of health culture in many ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a folk recipe collection manuscript written by an unknown author in Poljica area, in the 18th century. It is owned by the philologist, historian of literature and bibliophile, Josip Bratulic. Therefore, the author suggests that this recipe collection should bear the name Great folk medicine book from Poljica (Bratulic's folk medicine book). The manuscript is written in Latin script and Croatian language. It consists of 288 pages written in black ink and contains more than 1,100 recipes making it one of the largest known manuscripts. Although well preserved, a small part of it is unreadable. Most recommended recipes are for treating humans and domestic animals, while several recipes contain household tips. The abundance of its content, expressions, and healing instructions add this recipe collection to other similar manuscripts of this region, which create precious part of the Croatian medical, pharmaceutical, and cultural heritage [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the development and business of the chemical-pharmaceutical factory Rave PLC, founded in Zagreb in 1922. Based on archival and building documentation, professional and daily newspapers, and promotional material, the formation of the factory complex in the Zagreb industrial zone was reconstructed, its marketing strategy and its impact on the development of domestic drug production and hygiene and sanitary necessities were presented. As an important motive for its operations, the factory emphasized industrial independence, the national features of its business and the promotion of cooperation with young domestic industry. In accordance with the above-mentioned text, Rave PLC participates in the construction and development of domestic pharmaceutical production and market, encouraging the development of modern industry and struggle for more favourable conditions of its business. Its unprecedented history is an important segment of our pharmaceutical past, but also an indispensable element of knowing the industrial development of the wider region. This segment of the beginnings of pharmaceutical manufacturing is essential in knowing the origins of entrepreneurship in our region as a significant element in raising awareness of national production, development and identity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicine and physicians in Dubrovnik during the last two centuries, i.e. in the period after the dissolution of the Republic of Dubrovnik by Napoleon's Army, have attracted less interest among medical historians. In this paper, the lives and medical careers of two physicians from Dubrovnik, father and son, Baldo and Ante Bibica, have been reconstructed from the end of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century by searching through the contemporary medical journals and newspapers as well as private archives of the members of family Bibica. Baldo Bibica graduated medicine in Vienna and spent the whole professional life as a municipal physician, at first, in the places in the vicinity of Dubrovnik and from 1903 in Gruž. Ante Bibica studied medicine in Graz and in Zagreb to become the first person from Dubrovnik promoted at the School of Medicine, Zagreb University. He specialized in dermatovenereology in Vienna and worked, as a specialist, in Dubrovnik. They both were active in the professional medical societies (at local and national levels) and were influential in the social life in Dubrovnik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health of officers (as well as the entire army) is exposed to additional risks due to the performance of various life-threatening tasks for the needs of the state. Therefore, it is not unusual for the state to take care of the health of its officers (as well as the army) through a system of Vojvodina medical care or specialised society through the construction of military or officer health resorts [Militärkurhaus / Offizierskurhaus] with the provision of medical/ health services. The subject of this paper is the relationship between architecture and the provision of military-medical services of officer/military health resorts built by the Society of the White Cross [Gesellschaft vom Weißen Kreuze] in Kvarner at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The research is based on data collected from Austrian architectural, medical and tourist magazines and yearbooks of Austrian Society of the White Cross. The results of the research contribute to a better understanding of the improvement of the health of officers, the development of the architecture of health buildings [Kurhaus] and the entire history of medicine and health tourism in the Croatian Adriatic [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plague epidemics have remained in the collective consciousness until nowadays remembered as the deadliest. Therefore, it is not surprising that the answers to them throughout history have been not only medical but also religious. The previously mentioned will be analyzed in this paper through the cults of the protector saints against the plague epidemics that have developed in two Croatian cities of comparable size, Rijeka and Osijek, but with the diametrically opposed geographical positions and, accordingly, quite different historical developments. On the one hand, a more detailed overview of the development of the cults of various saints present in the mentioned cities will be presented. On the other hand, based on their presentation in the sacral heritage of these cities, the broader context of the time and space in which they have developed will be lightened. Particular attention will be paid to their medical connotations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Order of St. Augustine (Ordo Eremitarum Sancti Augustini) was the first religious community in Rijeka. The monastery of St. Jerome, founded by the noble families of Devin and Walsee, existed from the 14th century till 1788, when it was dissolved by Joseph II. Unfortunately, the past of the Augustine Monastery of St. Jerome is mostly unknown. On the basis of largely unexplored sources in Croatia and overseas, the author reveals several facts about the relation between Rijeka's Augustinian community and medicine. The paper includes an important piece of information concerning the existence of a hospital on the location of Andrejšćica in Rijeka, founded in the 15th century, which has so far been unknown. Augustinian's sources (16th and 18th century) show the presence of several shaver-surgeon (barbitonsorius) and other various relevant topics for the history of medicine in Rijeka - pharmacopola, aromatarius etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the role of Eugen Viktor Feller, a pharmacist and factory owner, with an emphasis on his marketing strategy in advertising his pharmacy specialty Elsa. Various types of contemporary press and advertising leaflets and packaging were used as a starting point for analysis. The abundance of the collected material provided an insight into Feller's communication strategy of the approach to consumers, comparing advertising in different media and time spans. Following the appearance and elaboration of visual communication phenomena as part of family interest, approaches and advances in the development of advertising in the projects of Feller's sons Miroslav and Ferdinand were presented. Upgrading to the father's positive marketing experience they begin a more contemplative advertising campaign. Ferdinand Feller introduces the concept of collective pharmaceutical propaganda into pharmaceutical marketing, while Miroslav Feller becomes one of the leaders in the development of institutionalization and professionalization of commercial graphic design. Thus, marketing development was demonstrated through marketing approaches and innovative ideas of the three members of Feller family, illustrating the shift in approaches that marked the beginning of a different management within an industrial society, where advertising became an indispensable part and a promoter of market relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how the system of medical care for wounded soldiers in Rijeka during the First World War was organized. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire the hospital care for sick and wounded soldiers, except of a military health care, was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Red Cross. The Municipal Committee of the Hungarian Red Cross in Rijeka, established in 1881, renewed its previously suspended activity in August 1914, with the task of starting a war hospital for wounded soldiers. For this purpose, the former Hotel for emigrants, a large modern building opened in 1908, was converted. It became the center of hospital care for wounded soldiers in the city. Also, under the supervision of the Red Cross in Rijeka several smaller auxiliary dispensaries were organized. The other city health care facilities and the most of the physicians in Rijeka were included in the care for the wounded. The head of the volunteer nurses of the Red Cross was the president of the Red Cross in Rijeka, Countess Sofia Wickenburg, the wife of the governor and at the same time the president of the Red Cross city branch. The medical staff in Rijeka was particularly noted for its successful and rapid suppression of a typhus epidemic in February and March 1915. The paper is based on research of archival funds in the State Archives in Rijeka and part of the Rijeka and Zagreb press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the first 14 years of publication of scientific journal AMHA - Acta medico-historica Adriatica (2003-2016) are presented and shortly analysed. This journal has undoubtedly become and remained the central activity of the Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, which has rapidly become a globally esteemed journal of history of medicine. The beginning and the context of publishing the journal with the reference to scientific meeting "Rijeka and Its Citizens in Medical History" is presented, as well as the journal's profiling into distinguished international journal and its fast development in later years. The analysis shows the growth of journal's visibility through indexation in different international journal databases, the number and ratio of scientific articles and the variety of published material. Finally, a review of the potential future directions of development and the significance of this journal within the national, regional and international context is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at presenting some health maps of a historical population. The studies on the health status of past populations are usually focused on the causes of death. Our purpose is to present some descriptive analyses on non-deadly diseases. The present work focuses on the province of Friuli (north-eastern Italy) in the second half of the nineteenth century. The used sources are military call-up records. We collected about 300,000 records relative to military recruitment that took place between 1866 and 1909 (birth cohorts 1846-1890). Our main concern was the health status of the 20-year male population, and its association with environmental, socio economic and genetic factors. Generally speaking, we observe that the northern mountain area was the most advantaged, while young adults from the eastern and western parts of the province were the most disadvantaged. A lot of factors and causes contributed to determine the spatial distribution of specific diseases in Friuli, whilst others remain unknown because simple descriptive analyses are not sufficient to highlight them all. In particular, the distribution of the thyroidal hypertrophy was almost certainly due to the water quality, while the distribution of dental caries was probably related to genetic and dietary factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Black Eagle pharmacy was founded in 1772 as a branch of the eponymous Karlovac pharmacy and was the oldest civil pharmacy on the territory of Banska krajina. Based on the archival sources, newspapers of the time, and the documentation preserved within the owner's family, its historical background and ownership chronology are presented in this paper. Special attention was dedicated to the Panac family, which led the pharmacy through four generations, from 1822 until 1950. The results of our research resolved the dilemmas about the pharmacy's first location and also presented the information concerning the academic path of its owners, their work, as well as their wider socio-cultural influences on life in Petrinja. The interior of The Black Eagle pharmacy has not retained its original function nor has the inventory been preserved, although the building, in which it was located, has been preserved and is protected as a cultural monument. The pharmacy was nationalized in 1947, and moved to a new location towards the end of 1950s. Therefore, the reconstruction of its historiography contributes not only to our knowledge of the pharmacy development in Croatia, but also to the understanding of the development of the city through the emergence and existence of medical and healthcare institutions within the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sacral heritage, religious practices and customs, and the ethnomedical heritage of the Mošćenice region have not had so far the attention of medico-historians, which represents the starting point of this paper. The research of the mentioned dimensions of medico-historical reality of Mošćenice and its surrounding area has been conducted on three levels. Starting with the usual methodology, sacral inventory of certain churches and chapels from the Mošćenice parish is analyzed from the perspective of the history of medicine. After that, the attention is first given to the religious practices motivated by health and then to other traditional forms and practices of health prevention and disease treatment - especially to those concerning people as well as those concerning animals. The scope of this research is to document and present the elements of medico-historical heritage of the Mošćenice region based on religious and other traditional components, but with the intention to enrich the medico-historical mosaic of the eastern Istrian coastal region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is presented the first original document of the delivery of conjoined twins on the territory of the present-day Vojvodina. The document number 1224 consists of two handwritten quires. On the first page of the first quire are a description and a drawing of the delivered twins. The delivery was described and drawn by Dr. Ernest Furjaković, a shire physician in Ruma and the secondary physicus of the Srem County, who attended and handled the delivery. The conjoined twins were delivered in the night between 2 and 3 April 1852 in Mali Radinci, a small village in the Srem County nearby Ruma, in the far south of the Habsburg Monarchy. The twins, preserved in alcohol, were sent to Budapest to the professor of anatomy „for the purposes of medical science“, as he wrote in the report. The second quire of the same document refers to the proof that the Commissariat in Ruma forwarded the doctor's report to the High Land Government in Timisoara. In the introduction, the authors displayed the known facts on the occurrence of conjoined twins in the world, which were used to compare with the described case. The data refer to the incidence of conjoined twins in the population, theory of its embryonic origin, their classification, treatment in cases of diagnosed pregnancy and the manner of their delivery. They also refer to the procedures of modern diagnostics, the possibilities of their surgical disjoin and related ethical questions. After that comes a part of the work dedicated to the analysis of the shown document, and the comparison of the several cases of the most significant conjoined twins in the world with these from Srem, as the authors named them. The authors showed short biography of the physician who delivered them, as well. At the end, they conclude that this work gives the first description of document of the delivery of the first known conjoined twins on the territory of the present-day Vojvodina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the city of Bari (Italy), during the 19th century, energetic political battles were carried out between the administrators and governors in order to ensure the population the primary resource for life: the water. In this town, there were no rivers or drinking water sources; the thirsty population drank from public and private cisterns for collecting rainwater. The condition of the pavement, poor maintenance of the reservoirs and the presence of absorbent cesspits in the vicinity of the wells were often the cause of pathogenic microorganisms' infiltration, such as viruses, bacteria or parasites, which were responsible for the most common digestive disorders. This paper aims to highlight the ties between political campaigns for the construction of the aqueduct and the recognition by the scientific community and governors of the causal link between certain diseases and infected water. The case of the city of Bari is exemplary because, according to the statistics of the causes of death, the hygienic conditions of the city changed parallel to the development of urban infrastructures, which radically intensified with the construction of the Apulian aqueduct in 1915, and the sewage system in 1920. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valley of the Neretva river, inhabited with about forty thousand people, is over one hundred kilometres away from the nearest hospital, which becomes particularly problematic in cases of mass casualties. During the Liberation War from January 1991 to June 1996, the War Hospital Metković was organized in the Neretva valley region. This paper deals with the activities of this hospital. The documentary basis for this paper consists of surgery protocols, records of day-clinic checkups at the War Hospital Metković, articles from the press of the period, private correspondence and secondary sources. In the analysed period, 1.831 people wounded in war were successfully treated in this hospital, and there were also 12.000 one-time checkups. The work and activities of war hospitals represent important chapters in the history of medicine. Research of the organization and functioning of these institutions contributes to the development of insights and experiences regarding organized medical care in the zone of immediate war activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the attitude of the society towards the medical profession, which was torn between high social expectations and ideals and medical practice confronted with real-life obstacles. In the 19th century, the physician's position was still precarious and called for a renegotiation in the community. Physician's work was faced with people's distrust and resistance, superstitions and prejudices, folk medicine and religion. Even such ideal qualities as dignity, conscientiousness, and courage, would quickly be called into question by events such as epidemics. Particularly in 19th century rural areas, the physician's position was far from acknowledged and official medicine had yet to win people's trust. This paper explores the polyvalent attitude of people towards medicine and health. It investigates the discourse used to describe health and medicine in daily press, professional and popular literature, as well as in official medical documents of the time. It shows a long struggle of public health care to gain people's approval. During cholera epidemics, which apart from presenting serious threat to human life were an opportunity for medicine to win people's trust and obedience, the attitude towards health gradually began to change. To some extent this was a result of medical advances, new scientific discoveries, and increasing success in abating the epidemics. At the same time, as the society became more secular, medicine slowly gained people's trust and gradually replaced the healing methods of folk medicine. Health was less and less understood as a result of God's will and mercy, and the attitude towards disease began to evolve from passive resignation to an active battle for health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Eugen Cerkovnikov, PhD (Kamenska, Russia, 1904 - Rijeka, Croatia 1985) graduated in chemical technology from the Faculty of Engineering in Zagreb in 1929. His first job was at the School of Medicine in Paris in 1930, and then he moved to Zagreb to the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Faculty of Engineering run by our Nobel Prize winner Vladimir Prelog (1935-1938). There he took his PhD degree with a dissertation on piperidine gamma derivatives. From 1938 to 1947 he was a research associate at an institute established by the pharmaceutical company Kaštel (later Pliva). This is when he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Zagreb and the first director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, established in 1946/47. In 1948 he became reader, and in 1956 (full) professor. In 1957 he moved to the newly established School of Medicine in Rijeka, and set up the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He ran the Institute until retirement in 1975. He was the second dean of the Rijeka University School of Medicine and a pioneer of quantum chemistry and medical cybernetics in undergraduate and (post)graduate courses. His scientific work consists of over 200 papers published at home and abroad, 60 professional papers, 20 book reviews, three works of translation, and 27 volumes of lecture notes. In 1958, professor Cerkovnikov established the Croatian Chemical Society and the Rijeka and Istria branches of the nation's Association of Chemists and Chemical Engineers, chairing them until 1974. In addition, he was one of the founding fathers, and the first chair of the Health Culture Studies Association in Rijeka (that preceded today's Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture), established in 1965. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of preventive measures against smallpox, this paper deals with some examples of vaccination which was carried out in the Koper district in the first half of the 19th century with special emphasis on general revaccination (1833) and vaccination of children (1835) which were promoted by the district physician Gian Andrea de Manzoni. In the time of his duty, the vaccination was regularly carried out in the town of Koper as well as in its surrounding, mostly rural localities within the district. Besides that, the revaccination of children and adults took place in case of the direct threat of the disease. With the analysis of existing nominative registers of the vaccinated, which are here discussed for the first time, a statistical research dealing with the vaccinated population structure by age and social status is being proposed, together with some starting points for reflection on the range and effect of these preventive measures. However, the author confronts some difficulties in the quantitative contextualization of the vaccinated within the present population of the area. Finally, some remaining questions regard also the mechanisms for persuading the population into the vaccination and the influence of the common attitude towards this practice on its actual range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the system of medical hygiene and health care adopted by the Croatian section of Yugoslav Railways in the aftermath of World War Two until 1953, based on archival information. In 1945, the human resources section of the Railway Administration in Zagreb included the Department of Social Welfare with offices that managed health insurance in cases of illness and accidents, workers' pension fund, and sanitary care.. On 19 June 1947, the regional railway executive board established a medical section within the so called Secretariat and appointed Dr Marijan Derkos as its head. On 3 July 1948, central and regional healthcare offices for traffic staff were established to manage and oversee the activities of health institutions providing services for railway workers. The seat of the regional office in Zagreb was in Grgurova street. After the dismantlement of the central healthcare office in charge of railway health institutions in 1953, regional boards established new institutions, that were now self-financed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departing from the definition of the stigmata as the wounds which, temporarely or permanently, manifest in some cases of extasy following a selected model of suffering (Jesus, Mohammed etc.), the present paper analyzes the phenomenology of stigmatization on several most famous historical and actual examples: Francis of Assisi, as the first stigmatized at all; Catherine of Siena, the only one beside Francis whose stigmata have been recognized by the Church as supernatural; Rita of Cascia (14th c.); Marie de MOrl (1812-1868) from Tirol; the Belgian Louise Lateau (1850-1883); Izabele Hendricks (1844-1874), who died from bleeding; Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), who presented stigmata and the traces of flagellation; the Bavarian Therese Neumann (1898-1962), of whom probabely the most has been written; the popular mendicant father Pio from Pietrelcina (1887-1968); Giulio Massa (b. 1970) from Montecorvino near Salerno, already known as the "Father Pio of the 21st century," who speeks out in Aramaic during extasy; and the first Croatian stigmatized, Zlatko Sudac (b. 1971). Considering some older and more recent interpretations of the stigmata, a more precise definition of that phenomenon is suggested. Acording to it, the stigmata might be considered spontaneous, isolated cases of the localized deautonomization of influence upon superficial blood vessels, mediated by altered consciousness. Pointed out are the potential enormous benefits which medicine might provide by finding out the regularity and methods by which that phenomenon would be initiated in a controlled way, at full consciousness, without external help and at any place on the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manuscripts containing collections of folk recipes for treatment of deseases were written mostly by Catholic priests especially Franciscians in Croatia in the past centuries. They were used as manuals for preparation of remedies and gave directions for their use. These writtings provide valuble data for etnographers and historians of ethnomedicine. The paper describes the manuscript "Many different remedies for headache treatment" written by unknown author probably in 18. century in Sinj, Dalmatia. The manuscript was found in the archives of Sinj Friary. The collection contains 16 recipes for headache treatment. Materia medica of the manuscript is composed of drugs of plant origin. Valuable information is given about the folk names for medicinal plants as well as descriptions of the ways of preparing remedies. Latin as well as contemporaly croatian names are attributed to the plants species mentioned in the manuscript. Use of the plants for treatment of the specific deseases were compared with their use in modem fitotherapy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Andelko Wolf graduated medicine from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in 1947. First he specialised in epidemiology and became head of the Brucellosis Centre in Rijeka for the Istria region. Later he also specialised in dermatovenerology at the Department for Skin and Venereal diseases in Rijeka. He passed the specialty board exam in dermatovenerology in 1958 and became teaching assistant. In 1973, he became assistant professor and in 1981 full professor. At the Department he founded the Laboratory for Mycology and allergology. Later he focused on occupational skin diseases and photodermatology. His doctoral thesis was on the action of light on the skin. He chaired the Clinic and was a member of various Hospital and Medical School committees. He was an excellent clinician undergraduate and graduate student teacher in Rijeka and Zagreb. He published around eighty papers on dermatology, but also on the necessity to reform medical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born in Rijeka and studied medicine in Vienna, Paris and Prague. He started his medical career in Belgrade State Hospital in 1920 but since 1922 he worked as an assistent at the State Institute of Epidemiology in Zagreb. In 1924 he was sent to USA to specialize in bacteriology, serology and immunology. Back in Zagreb he was engaged in antidiphtheric serum production. Later he became more interested in different aspects of community hygiene. After the World War II he was the Head of Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Zagreb. Later he was appointed as Chief Sanitary Inspector in Zagreb. He was a lecturer in community hygiene at the School of Medicine University of Zagreb. He contributed numerous articles for the Medical Encyclopedia as well as for the Maritime Encyclopedia. He participated actively and lectured at the meetings of the Section for the History of Medicine of the Croatian Medical Association. He published 125 papers, and three of them appeared in the distinguished international scientific journal. He died in 1975 in Zagreb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past centuries, manuscripts containing collections of folk recipes for the treatment of diseases were written mostly by Catholic priests in Croatia. They were used to prepare remedies and gave directions for their use. These writings provide valuable information for ethnographers and historians of pharmacy arid medicine. They describe the types and frequency of diseases afflicting humans and domestic animals in the past, development of ethnopharmacology, folk medical terminology, names of medicinal herbs, and the interaction between folk and science medicine. This is why they need a multi- disciplinary approach to be evaluated properly. This paper presents the 1776 Medicine Book by a priest Petar Kastelan from southern Croatia (Dalmatia). It was found in a private archive and has not yet been published. The collection is written in the Croatian Cyrillic script, which was mostly used from the Middle Ages to the second half of the 19th century by Catholic priests when they wanted to write in Croatian The collection contains 250 recipes for human medical practice and 10 recipes for veterinary medical practice. Thirty recipes contain household advice. Materia inedica of the manuscript is mostly composed of drugs of plant origin. Remedies of animal and mineral origin are also included, but to a smaller extent. Valuable information is given about the folk names for diseases and medicinal plants as well as descriptions of the ways of preparing remedies. Prayers for healing, void of sorcery and magic, are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]