Thursday, March 31, 2011

MMA- Modern Day Gladiators

Mixed martial arts (MMA) a popular sport within the United States. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the most popular organization of MMA in the US. The UFC was founded in 1993 but started to gain a heavy following in 2006. I would consider MMA the modern day gladiator event. From my research I have begun to piece together what an event would be like: a violent, bloody, and not always deadly match between two individuals. That is exactly what MMA is, minus the fact that the chance of death is much lower than a gladiator fighting in the arena. Two men enter the arena after a parade through the crowd, they look to excite the crowd through expressions of excitement, and they commence beating each other senseless to the appeal of the crowd. MMA just like the ancient Roman games is an event for the crowd, the participants bring violence which excites the crowd, the participant feeds of the excitement and increase his tenacity, which in turn excites the crowd even more. It is a never ending circle of excitement and violence between the contestant and the on lookers.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Ben J Bibliography

1) Anita Guerrini. Experimenting with Humans and Animals; From Galen to Animal Rights Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (2003)

Summary A broad overview of experimental and medical development from the 3^rd BCE until modern day, including understanding anatomy through vivisection and disease as microscopic molecular disorders and their application to surgery and vaccination is discussed.

3) Maud Gleason. Shock and Awe: the performance dimension of Galen's anatomy demonstrations (2007) Princeton/Stanford Working papers in classics
Summary Galen's dissection demonstrations are described with a focus on the performance aspects used by Galen to enhance his reputation. Some more notorious stories including his dissection and resuscitation of an Ape are recalled, and the tools and techniques used are described.

2) Peter James and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions (1994) Random House publishing group, NY.

Summary I focused on descriptions of the tools and techniques employed for ancient techniques including couching of cataracts, reconstructive surgery, and denture construction and fixation.

3) JR Kirkup. The history and evolution of surgical instruments II:Origins: function: carriage: manufacture Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1982) vol. 64

Summary An overview of instrumental development from primitive substitutions of shell or bone for teeth, and shaping of metal rods into simple surgical tools, and developments leading to more complicated fabrications.

4) John Stewart Milne. Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times. Claredon Press: Oxford, 1907.

Summary Complementing resource for comparing an early 20^th CE dissertation on ancient surgical instruments to the late 20^th CE reference above.

5) John Michalczyk. In the Shadow of the Reich: Nazi Medicine (1997)

Summary This documentary describes the rise of the Nazi regime. The steps leading up to the implementation of their "final solution" are presented, starting with mandatory sterilization for the mentally retarded modeled after preceding American legislation, the concept of "social hygiene" and purification, the role of doctors in ghettos, and the inhumane "science" of death camps.

6) J Horner, FD Minifie. Research Ethics I: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)—Historical and Contemporary Issues Pertaining to Human and Animal Experimentation Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Vol. 54, S303–S329 (2011)

Summary The chronological order of major legislation and developments in research ethics, largely in the last two centuries, are cataloged in this article supplement.

7) Steven Johnson. The Ghost Map. Riverhead Books: NY (2006)

Summary The 1850's cholera outbreak in London is described and the mentality of major figures and ideas of its cause are outlined. Most notably, John Snow's medical methodology involving large scale cataloging of lifestyles surrounding affected versus unaffected individuals, tracing the outbreak back to a sewage contaminated pump, and discovery of microscopic infectious agents is presented.

8) S Mukhopadhyay, GC Layek. Analysis of blood flow through a modelled artery with an aneurysm Applied Mathematics and Computation Volume 217, Issue 16, 15 (2011) 6792-6801

Abstract The intention of the present work is to carry out a systematic analysis of flow features in a tube, modelled as artery, having a local aneurysm in presence of haematocrit…. the numerical illustrations presented in this paper provide an effective measure to estimate the combined influence of haematocrit and aneurysm on flow characteristics.

9) John Cullis, John Hudson and Philip Jones A Different Rationale for Redistribution: Pursuit of Happiness in the European Union Journal of Happiness Studies Volume 12, 2, (2011) 323-341

Abstract This paper considers the role of redistribution in the light of recent research findings on self reported happiness. The analysis and empirical work reported here tries to relate this to a representative actor ‘homo realitus’ and the ‘pursuit of happiness’ rather than the traditional ‘homo economicus’. Econometrically estimating the determinants of happiness in the European Union (EU) using Eurobarometer data and the construction of an ‘Index of Happiness’ facilitates policy simulations. Such simulations find that in terms of average happiness there is little advantage to redistributing income within a country, but more from redistributing income between countries. The importance for happiness of relative income, average standard of living, marital status and age are confirmed. The theoretical rationale for redistribution is also examined.

10) Y Ohno, et al. High-Performance Drug Discovery: Computational Screening by Combining Docking and Molecular Dynamics Simulations (2001) Public Library of Science http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2746282

Abstract           Virtual compound screening using molecular docking is widely used in the discovery of new lead compounds for drug design. However, this method is not completely reliable and therefore unsatisfactory. In this study, we used massive molecular dynamics simulations of protein-ligand conformations obtained by molecular docking in order to improve the enrichment performance of molecular docking. Our screening approach employed the molecular mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann and surface area method to estimate the binding free energies....This result indicates that the application of molecular dynamics simulations to virtual screening for lead discovery is both effective and practical. However, further optimization of the computational protocols is required for screening various target proteins.

11) KL Steinmetz, EG Spack. The basics of preclinical drug development for neurodegenerative disease indications (2007) http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2697630
Abstract Preclinical development encompasses the activities that link drug discovery in the laboratory to initiation of human clinical trials. Preclinical studies can be designed to identify a lead candidate from several hits; develop the best procedure for new drug scale-up; select the best formulation; determine the route, frequency, and duration of exposure; and ultimately support the intended clinical trial design. The details of each preclinical development package can vary, but all have some common features. Rodent and nonrodent mammalian models are used to delineate the pharmacokinetic profile and general safety, as well as to identify toxicity patterns. One or more species may be used to determine the drug's mean residence time in the body, which depends on inherent absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion properties...

12) Kuntz. Structure-based strategies for drug design and discovery (1992) Science 257 pg 1078-82

13) Rebecca White. Drugs and nutrition: how side effects can influence nutritional intake (2010) Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 69, 558-564
Abstract             There are many factors that can influence nutritional intake. Food availability, physical capability, appetite, presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and perception of food are examples. Drug therapy can negatively influence nutritional intake through their effect on these factors, predominantly due to side effects. This review aims to give a brief overview of each of these factors and how drug therapy can affect them.

Selected Excerpts from Primary Sources

Galen On The Natural Faculties 1.15

Here let us forget the absurdities of Asclepiades, and, in company with those who are persuaded that the urine does pass through the kidneys, let us consider what is the character of this function. For, most assuredly, either the urine is conveyed by its own motion to the kidneys, considering this the better course (as do we when we go off to market!¹), or, if this be impossible, then some other reason for its conveyance must be found. What, then, is this? If we are not going to grant the kidneys a faculty for attracting this particular quality,² as Hippocrates held, we shall discover no other reason. For, surely everyone sees that either the kidneys must attract the urine, or the veins must propel it.

Celsus De Medicina Book 1, Prooemium

Homer stated, however, not that they gave any aid in the pestilence or in the various sorts of diseases, but only that they relieved wounds by the knife and by medicaments. Hence it appears that by them those parts only of the Art were attempted, and that they were the oldest.[p. 5] From the same authority, indeed, it can be learned that diseases were then ascribed to the anger of the immortal gods, and from them help used to be sought; and it is probable that with no aids against bad health, none the less health was generally good because of good habits, which neither indolence nor luxury had vitiated: since it is these two which have afflicted the bodies of men, first in Greece, and later amongst us; and hence this complex Art of Medicine, not needed in former times

At first the science of healing was held to be part of philosophy, so that treatment of disease and contemplation of the nature of things began through the same authorities; clearly because healing was needed especially by those whose bodily strength had been weakened by restless thinking and night-watching. Hence we find that many who professed philosophy became expert in medicine, the most celebrated being Pythagoras, Empedocles and Democritus. But it was, as some believe, a pupil of the last, Hippocrates of Cos, a man first and foremost worthy to be remembered, notable both for professional skill and for eloquence, who separated this branch of learning from the study of philosophy. After him[p. 7] Diocles of Carystus, next Praxagoras and Chrysippus, then Herophilus and Erasistratus, so practised this art that they made advances even towards various methods of treatment.

he Art of Medicine was divided into three parts: one being that which cures through diet, another through medicaments, and the third by hand. The Greeks termed the first Διαιτητικήν, the second Φαρμακευτικήν, the third Χειρουργίαν.

Apollonius and Glaucias, and somewhat later Heraclides of Tarentum, and other men of no small note, who in accordance with what they professed called themselves Empirici (or Experimentalists)

For they believe it impossible for one who is ignorant of the origin of diseases to learn how to treat them suitably. They say that it does not admit of doubt that there is need for differences in treatment, if, as certain of the professors of philosophy have stated, some excess, or some deficiency, among the four elements, creates adverse health; or, if all the fault is in the humours, as was the view of Herophilus; or in the breath, according to Hippocrates; or if blood is transfused into those blood-vessels which are fitted for pneuma, and excites inflammation[p. 11] which the Greeks term φλεγμόνην, and that inflammation effects such a disturbance as there is in fever, which was taught by Erasistratus; or if little bodies by being brought to a standstill in passing through invisible pores block the passage, as Asclepiades contended — his will be the right way of treatment, who has not failed to see the primary origin of the cause

Some following Erasistratus hold that in the belly the food is ground up; others, following Plistonicus, a pupil of Praxagoras, that it putrefies; others believe with Hippocrates, that food is cooked up by heat. In addition there are the followers of Asclepiades, who propound that all such notions are vain and superfluous, that there is no concoction at all, but that material is transmitted through the body, crude as swallowed

the Art of Medicine was not a discovery following upon reasoning, but after the discovery of the remedy, the reason for it was sought out

More rarely, yet now and again, a disease itself is new. That this does not happen is manifestly untrue, for in our time a lady, from whose genitals flesh had prolapsed and become gangrenous, died in the course of a few hours, whilst practitioners of the highest standing found out neither the class of malady nor a remedy. I conclude that they attempted nothing because no one was willing to risk a conjecture of his own in the case of a distinguished personage, for fear that he might seem to have killed, if he did not save her;[p. 29] yet it is probable that something might possibly have been thought of, had no such timidity prevailed, and perchance this might have been successful had one but tried it.

Themison, contend that there is no cause whatever, the knowledge of which has any bearing on treatment: they hold that it is sufficient to observe certain general characteristics of diseases; that of these there are three classes, one a constriction, another a flux, the third a mixture. For the sick at one time excrete too little, at another time too much; again, from one part too little, from another too much

But if Erasistratus had been sufficiently versed in the study of the nature of things, as those practitioners rashly claim themselves to be, he would have known also that nothing is due to one cause alone, but that which is taken to be the cause is that which seems to have had the most influence

Erasistratus himself, who says that fever is produced by blood transfused into the arteries, and that this happens in an over-replete body, failed to discover why, of two equally replete persons, one should lapse into disease, and the other remain free from anything dangerous

Hippocrates, said that in healing it was necessary to take note both of common and of particular characteristics.

Cassius, the most ingenious practitioner of our generation, recently dead, in a case suffering from fever and great thirst, when he learnt that the man had begun to feel oppressed after intoxication,[p. 39] administered cold water, by which draught, when by the admixture he had broken the force of the wine, he forthwith dispersed the fever by means of a sleep and a sweat.

Hippocrates Nutriment, introduction

A later Heraclitean, whether a professional doctor or not is uncertain, applied the theory of perpetual change to the assimilation of food by a living organism, and Nutriment is the result.

Apparently nutritive food is supposed to be dissolved in moisture, and thus to be carried to every part of the body, assimilating itself to bone, flesh, and so

Air (breath) also is regarded as food, passing through the arteries from the heart, while the blood passes through the veins from the liver. But the function of blood is not understood ; blood is, like milk, "what is left over" (πλεονας1μός2) when nourishment has taken place. Neither is the function of the heart understood, and its relation to the lungs is never mentioned.

Hippocrates De morbo sacro

The brain of man, as in all other animals, is double, and a thin membrane (meninx)divides it through the middle, and therefore the pain is not always in the same part of the head; for sometimes it is situated on either side, and sometimes the whole is affected; and veins run toward it from all parts of the body, many of which are small, but two are thick, the one from the liver, and the other from the spleen. And it is thus with regard to the one from the liver: a portion of it runs downward through the parts on the side, near the kidneys and the psoas muscles, to the inner part of the thigh, and extends to the foot. It is called vena cava. The other runs upward by the right veins and the lungs, and divides into branches for the heart and the right arm. The remaining part of it rises upward across the clavicle to the right side of the neck, and is superficial so as to be seen; near the ear it is concealed, and there it divides; its thickest, largest, and most hollow part ends in the brain; another small vein goes to the right ear, another to the right eye, and another to the nostril. Such are the distributions of the hepatic vein. And a vein from the spleen is distributed on the left side, upward and downward, like that from the liver, but more slender and feeble.

De morbis popularibus, on the epidemics Phthisis: dwindling or wasting away, tuberculosis

IN THASUS, about the autumn equinox, and under the Pleiades, the rains were abundant, constant, and soft, with southerly winds; the winter southerly, the northerly winds faint, droughts; on the whole, the winter having the character of spring. The spring was southerly, cool, rains small in quantity. Summer, for the most part, cloudy, no rain, the Etesian winds, rare and small, blew in an irregular manner. The whole constitution of the season being thus inclined to the southerly, and with droughts early in the spring, from the preceding opposite and northerly state, ardent fevers occurred in a few instances, and these very mild, being rarely attended with hemorrhage, and never proving fatal. Swellings appeared about the ears, in many on either side, and in the greatest number on both sides, being unaccompanied by fever so as not to confine the patient to bed; in all cases they disappeared without giving trouble, neither did any of them come to suppuration, as is common in swellings from other causes. They were of a lax, large, diffused character, without inflammation or pain, and they went away without any critical sign. They seized children, adults, and mostly those who were engaged in the exercises of the palestra and gymnasium, but seldom attacked women. Many had dry coughs without expectoration, and accompanied with hoarseness of voice. In some instances earlier, and in others later, inflammations with pain seized sometimes one of [p. 101]the testicles, and sometimes both; some of these cases were accompanied with fever and some not; the greater part of these were attended with much suffering. In other respects they were free of disease, so as not to require medical assistance.

Early in the beginning of spring, and through the summer, and towards winter, many of those who had been long gradually declining, took to bed with symptoms of phthisis; in many cases formerly of a doubtful character the disease then became confirmed; in these the constitution inclined to the phthisical. Many, and, in fact, the most of them, died; and of those confined to bed, I do not know if a single individual survived for any considerable time….The urine was thin, colorless, unconcocted, or thick, with a deficient sediment, not settling favorably, but casting down a crude and unseasonable sediment.

n the course of the summer and autumn many fevers of the [p. 102]continual type, but not violent; they attacked persons who had been long indisposed, but who were otherwise not in an uncomfortable state.

Bibliography

The Victor’s Crown- David Potter

-In this book there is a chapter entitled “Gladiators.” In this chapter the author talks about a multitude of gladiatorial facts. The chapter starts with Potter talking about gladiator tomb stones; he uses this to showcase an approximation of how many freemen participated in the games relative to slaves. Another point Potter brings up is that a large sum of money could be earned by competing in the games. A free gladiator could charge 12,000 sesterces to appear as a gladiator. At these matches prize money was also awarded, the winner could receive anywhere from 6,000 to 20,000 sesterces. By comparison a junior officer centurion made 36,000 sesterces and a senior officer made 144,000, while the minimum income needed to support a family was 1,000 sesterces. A gladiator could make a large sum of money by competing in multiple matches.

The Sorrow’s of the Ancient Romans- Carlin A. Barton

In this book Barton talks about the "Inverse Exaltation" of the Roman gladiator. "The gladiator: crude, loathsome, doomed, lost was, throughout the Roman tradition, a man utterly debased by fortune, a man altogether without worth and dignity almost without humanity." This quote sums up the beginning of Barton's arguement that gladiators were basically the scum of the earth in Roman society. The oath he took helped to "affirm" his low status within society.

Gladiatorial Oath (sacramentum gladiatorium)

Swore to endure being burned, bound, beaten, and slain by the sword (uni, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari patior)

He forswore all that might ameliorate his condition and finally, he forswore life itself.

But despite this repulsive nature of the gladiator within society, a gladiator could gain huge respect, even admiration from the crowd. Barton talks about how a gladiator who was fearless in the arena became the fascination of the crowd. He was idolized by the people who watched him compete without fear and defeated his enemy with extreme force.

The Roman Games- Alison Futrell

· Seneca- De providentia

o -“Valor is avid for danger…since even what it must suffer is a part of glory. Warriors glory in their wounds and jubilantly display their flowing blood…The raw recruit turns pale at the thought of a wound, but the veteran looks undaunted upon his own gore”

· Suetonius- Claudius

o -“Hail, Emperor; we who are about to die salute you” (have imperator, morituri te salutant!) famous greeting offered to Claudius by the “sailors” who were going to slaughter each other in his mock sea battle.

· Seneca- Letters, 7

o -I happened to go to one of these shows at the time of the lunch-hour interlude, expecting there to be some light and witty entertainment then, some respite for the purpose of affording people’s eyes a rest from human blood. Far from it. All the earlier contests were charity in comparison. The nonsense is dispensed with now: what we have now is murder pure and simple. The combatants have nothing to protect them; their whole bodies were exposed to the blows; every thrust they launch gets home…There are no helmets and no shields repelling the weapons. What is the point of armor? Or of skill? All that sort of thing just makes the death slower in coming…The spectators insist that each on killing his man shall be thrown against another to be killed in his turn; and eventual victor is reserved by them for some other form of butchery; the only exit for the contestants is death. Fire and steel keep the slaughter going. And all this happens while the area is virtually empty.

· Seneca- On Providence

o -The gladiator judges it ignominious to be set against an inferior, as he knows it is without glory to defeat one who can be defeated without danger

Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome- Donald G. Kyle

-In this book Dr. Kyle starts out the book by wondering what happens to the massive amounts of dead bodies that were accumulated as a result of the Roman games. This is the reason he states as why he wrote the book in the first place. He talks about the great violence that occured in the games and how many people were murdered. But after reading David Potter's book, "The Victor's Crown," it helped to explain through new research that many gladiators competed in nonleathal competitions in order to preserve the trainers investment in a fighter.

Seneca- On Tranquillity (De tranuillitate)

-Models his wise man after the gladiator. Like the gladiator entering the arena, the wise man enters life having already signed a contract acknowledging that his body is occupied by him only on the sufferance of the master/deity and can be properly demanded of him on a moment’s notice. Like the brave gladiator, the wise man, bound by the terms of his contract, must surrender life and limb directly to his divine master, without murmur or hesitation.

-“I seek not to evade or hang back; you see me prepared to render willingly to you what you gave to me before I was conscious. Away with my life!” (De tranquillitate 11.3)

Cicero- Tusculanae Disputationes

-while dismissing the gladiator as worthless and contemptible, “either abandoned men or barbarians,” Cicero allows the gladiator to be a model and paradigm of “the good man,” the soldier/philosopher who through his consistent and unflinching fierceness in the face of death and his complete collusion (and even pressure) in his own powerlessness couples his slavery with honor.

The Jewish Wars- Josephus

Spartacus: Film and History- Martin M. Winkler

Monday, March 28, 2011

Nazi Eugenics and "medical" experimentation

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spartacus

Double-click on the video

I selected this clip from the movie Spartacus as it was a great video to illustrate the ways that gladiators were trained to compete in the arena. Each gladiator goes through a rigorous training workout in order to prepare to be in top physical condition. In addition to being in top physical condition the training teaches the proper way to handle their weapons. At the end of the clip you will notice another key part in me selecting this clip to be put into this blog. It is the way that they are explained where the kill spots are on a human. They explain which parts will result in a slow death and which are an instant kill.

4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

The reason that I chose this clip was because I really wanted to highlight the dangerous and unnecessary situations that women endure in order to have an abortion in countries where abortion is illegal. Some context is also necessary, the hotel room that these women are currently in are also where they were raped by the man who performed the abortion. He simply gave them an ultimatum, either have sex or perform the abortion yourself (imagine your doctor asking you for payment in sex before your annual checkup). Also, There are no EMS personnel, there are no doctors, there are no spinal taps with morphine being injected, there is nothing to control the bleeding if she was to bleed out and even the father is not present. If something terrible happened, her friend could not call the cops or emergency services because they would be immediately prosecuted after treatment. While educating the masses about contraception and protective sex is greatly needed in many countries, we must make sure that an environment is not created where a woman must resort to such harsh measures in order to obtain an abortion.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Movie Gladiator

Today I happened to turn on the TV and as I was scrolling through the channels I came across the movie Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe. This was perfect for a multitude of reasons the first being that Gladiators is my topic of expertise for this class, the second being that this week in class we are going over movies that pertain to our topic, and the third being that this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

After knowing more about gladiators through my research about the topic the movie has a whole new meaning for me. I see more into what the gladiator is, not just a fighting man but an entertainer. There are something’s in the movie that are accurate according to my research, while others are not. The first in the arena in one of the Roman providences helps to show the actual experience a gladiator would have. In this scene the newly acquired slaves are put up against heavily armed gladiators. This was how most fights were organized so that the crowd could see a blood bath of the worthless slaves.

The first fight in the coliseum puts the barbarian hoard of Hannibal (slave gladiators) against the legions of Scipio Africanus (professional gladiators). This fight shows the differences between the professional gladiators and the men who are slaves and condemned to die. Maximus (the main character in Gladiator) and the other slave gladiators are sent into the ring to fight against the professional gladiators. The professional gladiators are given chariots and arrows and spears where the slaves are given swords and shields. The slaves are destined to lose as they are outmatched. This is how it was organized so the games could be used to showcase large battles that the Roman Empire had fought. Another important part of this scene is the crowd’s approval of the slave gladiators after their surprising victory over the professionals. The crowd’s approval and association with the gladiators is one of the truly important parts of the gladiatorial experiences.

The fight between the professional gladiator and Maximus is showing how a fight between two professional gladiators would be. Both are armed extremely well and are in a one on one fight to the death. It also shows how any fight can be rigged both the outside forces. With the lions only attacking Maximus, normally this would not be the case as the crowd would be angered by someone interfering with the fight inside the arena. The finally kill sequence of the fight is also very accurate except that Maximus doesn't follow the Emperors orders to finish off his competitor. The fact that he was going to behead the man is something that is very accurate according to a recent article I read on remains of gladiators found in England. According to The Independent, a newspaper in Great Britain, "Although some may have sustained injuries in the period immediately before death, in most cases decapitation appears to have been the act which killed them."

Cicero in this movie is one of Maximus' friends from the legion. That is something that I wouldn't have picked up on until I started learning about ancient Roman history.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Gladiatrices

Though uncommon, women were also found fighting in the arena! One can find references in the Satyricon and by Nero to the presence of women gladiators, also known as gladiatrices. As far as images go, let's do a quick then-and-now comparison:

For the ancient image, I'm not entirely sure how scholars were able to distinguish the figures as women. I would concede that there might be a slight indication that hair is pulled back but most of the rest of radiates, at least in my opinion, standard masculinity. Neither clothing nor overall build appears feminine and body stance is aggressive (though the aggression and clothing have necessary applications to the profession).

For the modern image, pulled from a Marvel comic, I would argue that, without the painted lips and presence of breasts (indicated by the low-cut shirt), this could easily be an animated man. From the toned body to the mohawk hair cut to the broad, strong shoulders and even the dialogue--"NNH...GET MOVING, WOMAN! GO!"--are more typically associated with men than women.

These images suggest that a sexual stereotype from the ancient world has permeated the modern world: that of a woman who tries to assume not only the traditional male societal role (including job and sexual habits) but also the distinguishing physical characteristics of the masculine sex and gender. How strange that, in a world where the concept of sexual orientation had not yet formed, one can still find the embodiment of what might today be referred to as the classic "butch" lesbian.

According to the Online Companion to the world of ancient women, the inscription beneath the ancient gladiatrices relief is, "an inscription in Greek commemorating their honorable release from the arena; at the bottom, their names: Amazon and Achillia." Further investigation indicated that they both survived and were deemed to have "won" the battle.

I will need better sources to confirm this bias but a quick search indicates that gladiatrices were, overall, not well-received. This is a translation of Satire VI of Juvenal:

Who has not seen the dummies of wood they slash at and batter

Whether with swords or with spears, going through all the manoeuvres?

These are the girls who blast on the trumpets in honour of Flora.

Or, it may be they have deeper designs, and are really preparing

For the arena itself. How can a woman be decent

Sticking her head in a helmet, denying the sex she was born with?

Manly feats they adore, but they wouldn’t want to be men,

Poor weak things (they think), how little they really enjoy it!

What a great honour it is for a husband to see, at an auction

Where his wife’s effects are up for sale, belts, shin-guards,

Arm-protectors and plumes!

Hear her grunt and groan as she works at it, parrying, thrusting;

See her neck bent down under the weight of her helmet.

Look at the rolls of bandage and tape, so her legs look like tree-trunks,

Then have a laugh for yourself, after the practice is over,

Armour and weapons put down, and she squats as she used the vessel.

Ah, degenerate girls from the line of our praetors and consuls,

Tell us, whom have you seen got up in any such fashion,

Panting and sweating like this? No gladiator’s wench,

No tough strip-tease broad would ever so much as attempt it.

~Kelly

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

From Cures to Causal reasoning

Experimentation is integral for improving modern medical practice. The ability to treat a medical disorder lays in both understanding how things ought to function, and isolating the variables of disorder. Ancient Greek and Roman conceptualization of medical causation largely arose between the 8^th and 3^rd century BC, and by the 2^nd century CE had evolved into an essentially modern medical philosophy. Many common medical practices, including medicaments and surgical practices arose significantly earlier even dating back to 3000 BC in Egypt; the cradle of medicine. I will be discussing which Greek philosophers and what initiated these changes, how they developed, and the impacts they had. In particular, the generally conservative nature of medical progression and the typical feature of tweaking tried and true methods rather than developing new ones. Common medical instruments are portrayed below, most of which had functions and application that remained essentially static throughout the medical enlightenment and the form and function of their modern counterparts remain practically unchanged. Celsus comments on the conservative nature of medicine in De Medicina;

More rarely, yet now and again, a disease itself is new. That this does not happen is manifestly untrue, for in our time a lady, from whose genitals flesh had prolapsed and become gangrenous, died in the course of a few hours, whilst practitioners of the highest standing found out neither the class of malady nor a remedy. I conclude that they attempted nothing because no one was willing to risk a conjecture of his own in the case of a distinguished personage, for fear that he might seem to have killed, if he did not save her;[p. 29] yet it is probable that something might possibly have been thought of, had no such timidity prevailed, and perchance this might have been successful had one but tried it.

Ancient Greek and Roman Medical Instruments

Michael Lahanas

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/MedicalInstruments.htm

Hooks, bone drills, and catheters

Vaginal speculum, scalpels, and forceps

Many medical practices from antiquity have been done away with, bloodletting being a notable example, but also more obscure practices such as the Hippocratic bench for spine alignment depicted below.

Medical practices such as splint setting and surgery itself, such as amputations and even more complicated procedures such as rhinoplasty and removal of cataracts were all common practice and and had a well established history despite the lack of a philosophical understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms. In the book Ancient Inventions Peter James and Nick Thorpe discuss the similarity of surgical practices throughout this development of medical philosophy and even in their common applications today. Nearly identical techniques for rhinoplasty and cataract removal appeared in Hindu texts nearly half a millennium earlier than in Greek and Roman medical treatises, suggesting the borrowing of procedures across cultures. Very similar basic tools and procedures had been applied for nearly three millennia up until the last hundred or so years. Medical experimentation on humans, such as the Nazis during WWII, have largely been atrocities due to the invasiveness and often sadism of procedures. Medical practice in general has actually been largely conservative.

Rhinoplasty was first practiced in India, with procedures in Hindu texts dating to ~300 BC, a leaf shaped flap of skin was removed from the forehead, twisted over and stitched on over bamboo or metal tubes to keep the nasal passages open during recovery. Essentially the same procedures are used today in skin grafting, except skin is generally taken from behind the ear.


Procedure for cataract displacement described by Celsus. The approximate size of the needle is depicted to the right. Other methods were also implemented in which the cataract was actually broken apart and removed with the needle and a very fine hook.

Circumcision was practiced in Eqypt as early as 2600 BC, fine copper and bronze scalpels were used and have been found in tombs.

Though practices stayed relativity constant ideas were constantly fluctuating. The 2^nd century Greek philosopher Celsus largely summarized Greek and Roman advances over this time period in his medical encyclopedia De Medicina, in the Prooemium the developing beliefs of the philosophers involved are detailed;

Art of Medicine was divided into three parts: one being that which cures through diet( Διαιτητικήν), another through medicaments(Φαρμακευτικήν), and the third by hand(Χειρουργίαν).

Homer (Greek ~850 BC, Trojan war 1190-1180 BC) stated, however, not that they gave any aid in the pestilence or in the various sorts of diseases, but only that they relieved wounds by the knife and by medicaments…diseases were then ascribed to the anger of the immortal gods, and from them help used to be sought

many who professed philosophy became expert in medicine, the most celebrated being Pythagoras (Ionian Greek philosopher 570-495 BC), Empedocles (490-430 BC, Greek, cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements) and Democritus (460-370 BC, Greek, formulated atomic theory of the cosmos with his mentor Leucippus). But it was, as some believe, a pupil of the last, Hippocrates of Cos (460-370 BC, Greek, father of western medicine), a man first and foremost worthy to be remembered, notable both for professional skill and for eloquence, who separated this branch of learning from the study of philosophy. After him Diocles of Carystus (4^th BC, importance of diet, wrote treatises in Attic opposed to customary Ionic), next Praxagoras (born ~340 BC, insisted on 11 humors, distinguished arteries and veins) and Chrysippus (279-206 BC, Greek, stoic, determinist, organic unity of the universe; correlation and mutual interdependence between all its parts) then Herophilus (335-280 BC, Greek, pupil of praxagoras, discovered sensory and motor nerves, cofounder of the medical school of Alexandria) and Erasistratus (304-250 BC, Greek, cofounder of medical school of Alexandria, discovered the role of the heart) so practised this art that they made advances even towards various methods of treatment. Apollonius and Glaucias, and somewhat later Heraclides of Tarentum (2^nd BC, Greek, extensively quoted by Galen, only wrote what he himself found to be right; Empirici or Experimentalists) They believe it impossible for one who is ignorant of the origin of diseases to learn how to treat them suitably.

On adverse health:

Herophilus; all the fault is in the humours

Hippocrates; or in the breath

Erasistratus; blood is transfused into those blood-vessels which are fitted for pneuma, and excites inflammation which the Greeks term φλεγμόνην, and that inflammation effects such a disturbance as there is in fever

Asclepiades; little bodies by being brought to a standstill in passing through invisible pores block the passage

On Digestion:

Erasistratus held that in the belly the food is ground up

Plistonicus, a pupil of Praxagoras, that it putrefies

Hippocrates, that food is cooked up by heat.

Asclepiades, who propound that all such notions are vain and superfluous, that there is no concoction at all, but that material is transmitted through the body, crude as swallowed

On Causation and Treatment

Themison, (1^st BC, founder of the Methodic school of medicine) contend that there is no cause whatever, the knowledge of which has any bearing on treatment: they hold that it is sufficient to observe certain general characteristics of diseases;

if Erasistratus had been sufficiently versed in the study of the nature of things, as those practitioners rashly claim themselves to be, he would have known also that nothing is due to one cause alone,

Hippocrates said that in healing it was necessary to take note both of common and of particular characteristics.

Submission to the uncontrollable will of the Gods, however, began losing favor with the implementation of Hippocratic medicine. Hippocrates was one of the earliest Greek philosophers to start contemplating the functions of biological processes in attempting to apply medical practices. In his treatise Nutriment he largely postulates on the mechanisms of digestion;

Apparently nutritive food is supposed to be dissolved in moisture, and thus to be carried to every part of the body, assimilating itself to bone, flesh, and so

Air (breath) also is regarded as food, passing through the arteries from the heart, while the blood passes through the veins from the liver. But the function of blood is not understood ; blood is, like milk, "what is left over" (πλεονας1μός2) when nourishment has taken place.

These paraphrases on sections from Nutriment demonstrate both an application of intuition, and a profound lack of information on many of the bodies function. Food, both the soluble and insoluble, indeed must be dissolved in moisture before being carried to the rest of the body. Solvation is the medical term for breaking up large aggregations of lipids into tiny lipid droplets, which can then be packaged with soluble lipoproteins for transport to the rest of the body through the blood. The roll of blood as that “moistening” medium, however, apparently went overlooked. More important than philosophical conjecture, he was also one of the first to compile detailed descriptions of the circumstances of diseases, and there variations. In De morbis popularibus, on the epidemics he comments on many factors surrounding a tuberculosis epidemic, then known as phthisis (Greek for dwindling or wasting away);

They were of a lax, large, diffused character, without inflammation or pain, and they went away without any critical sign

Many had dry coughs without expectoration, and accompanied with hoarseness of voice. In some instances earlier, and in others later, inflammations with pain seized sometimes one of [p. 101]the testicles, and sometimes both; some of these cases were accompanied with fever and some not

The urine was thin, colorless, unconcocted, or thick, with a deficient sediment, not settling favorably, but casting down a crude and unseasonable sediment.

In the course of the summer and autumn many fevers of the [p. 102]continual type, but not violent; they attacked persons who had been long indisposed, but who were otherwise not in an uncomfortable state.

Within these passages, the beginning of widespread medical categorization and compilation begins to be evident. Both the spectrum of conditions and their chronology is taken into account. Large scale data collection of this sort, however, didn’t prove particularly enlightening until the 1850’s with the invent of epidemiology. John Snow is attributed as the farther of epidemiology for his role in understanding the underlying reasons for the 1854 cholera outbreak in England. He assembled huge amounts of data on the eating, drinking, and hygiene habits of both sick and healthy individuals during the epidemic, ultimately tracing the outbreak back to a contaminated well. The Book Ghost Map by Steve Johnson describes the context surrounding this paradigm shift. Previously, miasma theories, derived from the greek term for pollution, were most commonly accepted. The notion of disease being transmitted through polluted air dates back to Hippocrates who was obsessed with air quality.

His treatise On Air, Water, and Places begins : “whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place to consider the seasons fo the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes. Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality.”

In 1853 miasma theories were still eminently compatible with religious traditions. Henry Whitehead, a man of the cross, attributed the Golden Square outbreak to God’s will. Even the revolutionist Victorians also clung to miasmic theory. Belief in miasmic theory likely largely resulted from authors' visceral disgust with the smells of the city. No science or statistics of time, however, suggested smell alone was killing London’s people.

John Snow’s detailed rigorous analysis of the water companies and the transmission routes of the Horsleydown outbreak couldn’t compete with a whif of the air in Bermondsey district which wreaked with the stench of decaying corpses. Telescopes and Microscopes had been around for 200 years but the idea of microbes causing disease was still unheard of. Instead theories such as Thomas Sydenham’s internal-constitution theory of the epidemic, an eccentric hybrid of weather forecasting and medieval humorology, were common. He posited that Certain atmospheric conditions encouraged specific types of disease, and predisposition to infection lay in the sufferers themselves. Eventually, however, John Snow's Veronoi diagram, shown below, illustrated the pump as the primary suspect for the outbreak.

Black bars represent deaths, and the grey line represents the border where walking distance to Broad Street pump is closer than other pumps.

Despite the relatively conservative nature of medical practice many regulations on research ethics have only rather recently been imposed. Jennifer Horner outlines these advances in her paper Research Ethics I: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)—Historical and Contemporary Issues Pertaining to Human and Animal Experimentation

Modern medicine, however, has seemingly moved away from this conservative nature with new experimental drugs on the market almost daily with very little research on their lasting and indirect effects. Rather than the long standing model concisely put by Celsus in which;

the Art of Medicine was not a discovery following upon reasoning, but after the discovery of the remedy, the reason for it was sought out.

Modern man has begun attempting reason as a means for discovering a remedy.

Ancient and Modern Bioethics

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