Relevance: Many Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs) have changed over centuries of use, particularly in terms of their botanical identity and processing methods. In some cases, these changes have important implications for safety and efficacy in modern clinical practice. As most previous research has focused on clarifying the evolution of CMMs by analyzing traditional Chinese materia medica ("bencao") literature, assessments of historical collections are needed to validate these conclusions with material evidence.. Aim of the study: Historical collections of Chinese medicines reveal the market materials in circulation at a given moment in time, and represent an underexploited resource for analyzing the evolution of Chinese herbal medicines. This study compares specimens from rare collections of CMMs with contemporary market materials. By highlighting examples of changes in botanical identity and processing that remain relevant for safe clinical practice in the modern era, this work aims to stimulate further research into previously unexplored historical collections of Chinese medicines.. Materials and Methods: Three groups of herbal specimens were investigated from pre-modern collections of CMMs; these specimen groups are divided into separate chapters in the thesis presented here. The historical specimens researched here are stored in the UK in the Economic Botany Collections (EBC) of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and in the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day, Oregon. The specimens were morphologically examined, photographed, and compared to authentic CMMs stored at the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Chinese Medicines Center at Hong Kong Baptist University, as well as authentic herbarium-vouchered specimens from the Leon Collection (LC) at the Kew EBC. Case studies were selected to illustrate examples of historical changes in botanical identity, used plant parts, and processing methods.. In the first group, 620 specimens of CMMs that were collected from Chinese pharmacies in the Malay peninsula in the 1920s were examined macroscopically and compared with current pharmacopoeia specifications and authentic contemporary samples. In the second group, three commonly used Chinese medicines that have a history of substitution with materials from the Aristolochiaceae family were investigated. In the third group, over 200 herbal specimens from a Gold Rush Era collection stored in John Day, Oregon were assessed.. Results: This investigation confirmed that confusion due to shared common names and regional variations in the botanical identity of certain CMMs has been a persistent issue over time. Additionally, historical changes in processing methods and the plant parts used were observed for some CMMs. In some cases, these changes have direct implications for the safe clinical practice of Chinese medicine.. Conclusions: This preliminary assessment illustrated the significant potential of collections for clarifying historical changes in CMMs. More research is needed to investigate pre-modern collections of CMMs, including a more comprehensive assessment of the holdings in the Kew EBC and other European collections that have not yet been explored from the perspective of Chinese medicine.

This thesis provides a social history of the introduction the Pap smear and the expansion of population-based cervical screening programs in Australia throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century. By placing cervical screening in a broad social context, this history helps to reveal the complex interrelationship between developments in scientific medicine, social, political and economic concerns, changing beliefs and attitudes, and the growing influence of commercialisation and consumerism. It also highlights the tendency for public health strategies to serve as a means of social and moral control. Furthermore, the thesis examines the conflict between the population-based approach of public health and the concern of clinicians for the welfare of individual patients. This conflict has emerged in other areas of medicine. In casting light on such conflict, the thesis will provide historical insight into reasons for why medicine is often perceived to be in a state of crisis today.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-250).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 234-252).

This thesis is an exploration of various aspects of oral health in the early-modern period. It examines evidence taken from texts belonging to a range of genres including surgical manuals, botanical texts, midwifery manuals, poets and plays. Building on existing academic work relating to the history of dentistry and venereal disease, it aims to assimilate material from across science and the arts in order to gain a sense of what general social expectations were in relation to the condition of the teeth and palate, and how people suffering with a decline in oral health were advised, or what treatments were available to them either from a professional or in the home. It aims to challenge existing preconceptions that people living in this period displayed a negligent attitude towards the health of their teeth and oral hygiene. The thesis contains four chapters which each focus on a different aspect of oral health, though many themes recur across all four chapters. The first chapter investigates advice that was available in print, and therefore likely to be in public consciousness, to the early-modern individual in relation to maintaining their teeth. It then considers the portrayal of unattractive teeth and bad breath in early-modern literature. Chapter Two deals with early-modern explanations of what caused the toothache and how it could be remedied. Analysis of the depictions of toothache in various poetry and plays follows in order to explore how wider society made sense of medical thinking at the time. The palate becomes the sole focus of Chapter Three, which considers what specific health concerns posed a threat to the condition of the roof of the mouth, and what difficulties could arise for the individual whose palate has been damaged by disease or injury. The thesis concludes with a chapter which investigates the history of a congenital oral birth defect, the cleft lip and palate. The thesis was designed to allow each chapter to deal with a separate facet of oral health; they encompass in turn: oral hygiene, dental pain, the impact of disease on the palate and an exploration of an oral birth defect. An undercurrent of the thesis is to use a range of material to ascertain a realistic idea of what it was like for an individual to experience oral health difficulties in this period. It is therefore interested in how society perceived people who were experiencing problems with their oral health, and what could be done to improve their quality of life. The research presented here represents a contribution to the field of the history of oral health and aims to provoke further questions relating to the responsibility early-modern individuals took for their own oral health, and the specific situations in which intervention, either surgical or medicinal, was deemed necessary.

No description available.

Zugl: Münster (Westfalen), Universität, Diss., 1989. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Zugl: Münster (Westfalen), Universität, Diss., 1989. / Includes bibliographical references and index.