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This thesis follows Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī (d. 1311), a brilliant and influential polymath, through the eighty years of his long life and focuses on him navigating changing environments in the Persianate Mongol world (i.e., the second half of the thirteenth century to the early decades of the fourteenth century). In order to retrace his life, this study draws extensively on contemporary chronicles, biographical dictionaries, autobiographies, hagiographies, and some of his own manuscripts to illuminate parts of his life unknown before. Through that, this thesis illustrates Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī’s intellectual, political, and religious networks, with special attention to his patrons. Moreover, even though his fame in the modern world is primarily due to his astronomical treatises as part of the Maragha school, my thesis demonstrates his investment in medicine, Sufism, and religious sciences, including jurisprudence, Qurʼān interpretations, and ḥadīth studies. Hence, Quṭb al-Dīn is an example of an intellectual in the Ilkhanid realm who developed informal networks transcending political, linguistic, and genre boundaries, that spanned an area from the western fringes of Anatolia to Khorasan, through bustling late medieval metropolises such as Shiraz, Sivas, Konya, Baghdad, Cairo, Tabriz, and Maragha.

Background In the 1950s the socialist health policy in East Germany did not follow a clear-cut course with regard to outpatient medical care. Whilst state-run policlinics gradually took the place of doctors in private practice, the required qualifications of physicians working in outpatient care remained unclear. After preparatory lobbying by committed physicians from the outpatient sector, the 1960 Weimar Health Conference finally paved the way for the preservation and professionalization of general practice in East Germany. Aim The article analyzes the formation of general practice as a specialty in East Germany between 1945 and 1990. We scrutinize the status of general practitioners and their field in the socialist health system as well as the foundation of their medical society. Our paper aims to contribute to a broader history of general practice in Germany. Methods We draw on literature from that time, unpublished archival material, and interviews with contemporary witnesses. Results After the establishment of standards for specialist training in the early 1960s, general practice was introduced as a field of specialty in 1967. By this, East Germany had a compulsory specialist training in general practice much earlier than West Germany. In 1971, a specialist society for general practice was founded in East Germany. However, institutionalization at the medical faculties was still lacking. Meanwhile, the nationalization of outpatient care continued. In the years that followed, primary medical care was increasingly provided in policlinics. In 1989, of 40,000 physicians in the GDR, only about 340 were still practicing in their own offices. Conclusion Within the nationalized GDR health system a committed group of physicians, under difficult political circumstances, pushed for professionalization of general practice and its recognition as a field of specialty. When general medicine was recognized as a specialty in 1967, this happened earlier than in other countries and constituted an important milestone.

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<p dir="ltr">This dissertation argues that shifting secular conversion therapy practices and theories in North America between 1910 and 1980 consistently relied on both queer affective experience and anti-queer and anti-trans animus to justify often brutalizing medical interventions. Canadian and American conversion therapists’ pathologizing views of queer sexual behavior and gender identity were shaped by complex interplays between cultural, legal, social, and medical perspectives, but predominately worked to uphold heteronormative social structures leading to discrimination, hate, and harm towards queer people in both countries. Focusing on affect thereby encourages scholars to recognize how conversion therapies in all their variable historical permutations are both medical <i>and </i>cultural practices that have attempted to use queer patients’ affective needs for acceptance, love, safety, and validation in ways advancing anti-gay and anti-trans social narratives in purportedly therapeutic settings since the early twentieth century.</p><p dir="ltr">This research uses a transnational approach that is at once sensitive to national differences between the American and Canadian queer experience while looking to draw connections between conversion therapy’s development and individual experiences of this practice in two national contexts over time. It additionally pays careful attention to the ways social power hierarchies based on race and class informed individuals’ affective experiences of conversion therapy between 1910 and 1980.</p>

Taking into account of the colonial nature of modern Hong Kong, this author is to examine how the TWGHs as a medical space gradually developed from one that used only Chinese medicine into one in which Chinese medicine and western medicine coexisted. However, it finally became a western style hospital using only western medicine in the inpatient services in the 1940s, along with the growing hegemony of western medicine that was underpinned by colonial power. The multidimensional relationships among different agents in the process of transformation of medical services in the TWGHs constitutes another important theme of this thesis. These relationships touched upon a series of significant interactions between colonial government and Chinese community, colonial authorities and the Tung Wah Board of Directors, Chinese and western medical practitioners, Chinese community and the Tung Wah authorities, and so on. / The implantation, dissemination and expansion of modern western medicine, as an important part of western learning that infiltrated into the Orient, exerted profound impacts on Chinese traditional medical patterns and Chinese medical ideas and practices. As the center for exchange between Chinese and Western Culture, Hong Kong became a significant space for the spread and practice of western medicine. A wide range of western medical services and activities were delivered and developed by the colonial government, western missionaries, benevolent societies, and private practitioners in order to promote the development and popularization of western medicine among the Chinese community, including the establishment of hospitals, dispensaries and clinics, the opening of medical schools and training of western doctors, and the promotion of public health education. / This thesis also points out that the early intense prejudice and resistance against western medicine is not necessarily and cannot be entirely attributed to the underlying difference in the concept and practice of healing and sickness in the two different medical systems. Instead, I argue that a number of technical and practical factors in the delivery of western medical services provided by different agencies greatly affected and determined the choices and uses of the Chinese population. At the same time, the gradual recognition and reception of western medicine among the Chinese was not only the passive result of the compulsory western medical system developed by the colonial government, but also an active realization of the real efficiency and value of western medicine among the indigenous population and their consent and acceptance of its ideology and cultural value, to a great extent. / This thesis examines the confrontation and interaction between Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and the diverse and complicated Chinese attitudes towards western medicine by studying the history of the introduction of western medicine into Hong Kong and the case of transformation of Chinese and western medical services in the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) during the period between 1894 and 1941. The history of the TWGHs dates back to the opening of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1870. Originally intended for the accommodation and treatment of those Chinese who had strong fears and prejudices against western medicine, the Tung Wah Hospital was founded to provide treatment only by Chinese doctors using Chinese medicine. The bubonic plague of 1894 in Hong Kong marked an important turning point in the history of medical services of the Tung Wah Hospital. Since then, western medicine was formally introduced into the Tung Wah Hospital in 1897. / 楊祥銀. / Adviser: Hon-ming Yip. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0715. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-306). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Yang Xiangyin.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T12:51:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 beneditogeraldesneto_dissert.pdf: 623417 bytes, checksum: 2d2e54af7355747bb5a7836ecc057429 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-21 / The current technical knowledge on the etiology, infection forms, clinical picture and treatment of the syphilis comprised more than four centuries to be built. The objective of this research is to identify and to discuss the changes on the medical knowledge on the disease along that time, particularly regarding the treatment. Material and Methods: Bibliographical research of historical nature was performed. Medical newspapers of the studied times were the main sources. The research was complemented with bibliographical indications found in the papers of these magazines and in dermato-syphilography textbooks. Results: Syphilis appeared in Europe in the end of the 15th century, spreading as a serious epidemic. The first explanations for its emergence were mystic and astrological. The doctors tried to treat the patients on the basis of hypocritical-galenic theories of the balance of the humors. Treatment with mercury started to be used in the 16th century and aimed at eliminating harmful humors. At the same time, the conceptual perception of a great venereal illness has appeared; all of the diseases of sexual transmission would be a single disease, and they would have the same cause. In the 18th century, the first tuneless voices appeared settling down highly controversial among ones that defended the uniqueness of the venereal diseases and the ones that believed they could have different pathologies. Both currents were based on experiments with inoculations to prove their positions. The controversy was only undone in the second quartile of the 19th century due to Ricord´s work in France, whose experiments were also based on inoculations. In the beginning of the 20th century, syphilis agent and the Wassermann´s diagnosis test were discovered that opened the field of research. Until that time, the only specific treatment was the mercury. The great first therapeutic revolution occurred in 1910 when Paul Ehrlich based on their advanced immunological concepts, introduced the Salvarsan, an arsenical, whose discovery was the result of an exhausting, methodical and visionary work. Ehrlich imagined to get the "magic bullet", the drug able to eliminate the infection without impairing the organism. With these progresses, the field of research on the syphilis therapeutics was broadly extended appearing new techniques and treatment concepts. The penicillin, discovered by Fleming in 1928, was viable by Florey and collaborators in the beginning of the decade of 1940. It was the mark of a new era in Medicine since it has provided the cure of several infectious diseases. It was introduced in the treatment of the syphilis in 1943, being effective to cure the treponemic infection, mainly without adverse effects. Initially used in association with other drugs, it became the choice treatment for syphilis, with support of numerous therapeutic trials. Conclusions - From the primitive, mystic and astrological concepts until the advent of the microbial theory and the penicillin, the medical knowledge on syphilis has passed a gradual-evolution process , intermixed by ruptures with old knowledge and frequent disputes among collective of conflicting thought. The consolidation of the changes in the medical thought has needed the experimental support and breaking with established paradigms. / atual conhecimento técnico sobre etiologia, formas de contágio, quadro clínico e tratamento da sífilis levou mais de quatro séculos para ser construído. O objetivo desta dissertação é identificar e discutir as mudanças ocorridas no saber médico sobre a doença ao longo desse tempo, particularmente com relação ao tratamento. Material e Métodos: Foi realizada pesquisa bibliográfica de natureza histórica, tendo como fontes principais os periódicos médicos das épocas estudadas. A pesquisa foi complementada com indicações bibliográficas encontradas nos artigos dessas revistas, artigos históricos e livros-textos de dermato-sifilografia. Resultados: A sífilis surgiu na Europa no final do século XV, na forma de uma grave epidemia. As primeiras explicações para o seu aparecimento foram místicas e astrológicas. Os médicos tentavam tratar os doentes com base nas teorias hipocrático-galênicas do equilíbrio dos humores. O tratamento com mercúrio começou a ser empregado já no século XVI e visava à eliminação de humores nocivos. Na mesma época surgiu a percepção conceitual de um grande mal venéreo, todas as doenças de transmissão sexual seriam uma única doença e teriam a mesma causa. No século XVIII apareceram as primeiras vozes discordantes, estabelecendo-se rumorosa polêmica entre os que defendiam a unicidade das doenças venéreas e os que acreditavam serem elas enfermidades distintas. As duas correntes basearam-se em experimentos com inoculações para provar suas posições. A polêmica só foi desfeita no segundo quartil do século XIX graças aos trabalhos de Ricord na França, cujos experimentos também se basearam em inoculações. No alvorecer do século XX, foram descobertos o agente da sífilis e o teste diagnóstico de Wassermann que abriram o campo de pesquisas. Até essa época o único tratamento específico era o mercúrio. A primeira grande revolução terapêutica ocorreu em 1910 quando Paul Ehrlich, baseado em então avançados conceitos imunológicos, apresentou o Salvarsan, um arsenical, cuja descoberta foi fruto de um trabalho exaustivo, metódico e visionário. Ele imaginava conseguir a bala mágica , a droga capaz de eliminar a infecção sem lesar o organismo. Com esses avanços, o campo de pesquisas na terapêutica da sífilis foi largamente ampliado, surgindo novas técnicas e conceitos de tratamento. A penicilina, descoberta por Fleming em 1928 e viabilizada por Florey et al. no início da década de 1940, foi o marco de uma nova era na medicina ao proporcionar a cura de diversas doenças infecciosas. Foi introduzida no tratamento da sífilis em 1943 revelando-se capaz de suprimir a infecção treponêmica, praticamente sem efeitos adversos. Inicialmente usada em associação com outras drogas, tornou-se o tratamento de escolha na sífilis, com respaldo de numerosos ensaios terapêuticos. Conclusões: Desde os conceitos primitivos místicos e astrológicos, até o advento da teoria microbiana e da penicilina, o saber médico sobre a sífilis sofreu um processo de evolução gradativa, entremeado por rupturas com antigos saberes e frequentes disputas entre coletivos de pensamento conflitantes. A consolidação das mudanças no pensamento médico necessitou do respaldo experimental e do rompimento com paradigmas estabelecidos.

As a writer of medical summaries and compendia, Oribasius has often been dismissed as a harbinger of late antique medical decline. This dissertation challenges this long-lived assumption by revaluating the compiler and his writings, and the place of medicine in the cultural and social landscape of late antiquity. Chapter one examines the scholarly biases that surround Oribasius’ career, positing that his Medical Collections were produced in response to the intellectual priorities of the Emperor Julian’s scholarly circle. Moreover, both the medical art and the physician were highly regarded in the fourth century, as chapter two demonstrates. Not only do the Collections reflect the priorities and order of empire, but the idea of the medical encounter granted both emperor and bishop a symbolic language with which to pose and articulate social questions in this period. Chapters three and four outline the ways Oribasius engaged with the medical realities of his day, by retaining in his compilation a sense of personal experience and patient interaction. In his borrowed case histories, female subservience in the face of medical authority is expected; whilst the hierarchy of the elite household is shown to dictate his approach to the patients within it. A messier reality of female agency in their own physical and spiritual care is better captured by Christian writers in the miracle account and sermon, in part because Christians like the Cappadocians and John Chrysostom imbued female choice with new theological meaning. Chapter five sets Oribasius’ approach to the female patient in the broader context of late antique social shifts. The compiler’s careful delineation of responsibility and blame in dealings with vulnerable pubertal and pregnant women reflect an attempt to reaffirm an unwritten social contract with the elite and the paterfamilias; a social priority which is also apparent in the legal compendia of the period. Christian writers, meanwhile, drew metaphorically upon medical discourses of generativity and patrimony to distinguish Christian society from the classical past, as chapter six demonstrates. In the final analysis, Oribasius’ Collections are shown to be intimately and variously in dialogue with the society that produced them, reflecting both the high standing of the art in late antiquity, and its symbolic role in defence of the social world, patriarchy and empire. Christian interactions with medicine are shown to reflect many of these same priorities, and to engage with medical norms in more pervasive ways than has often been noted. But it is only in the Christian text that the medical writers’ woman transcends the determinisms of her traditional generativity and physical inferiority, so central to the writings of Oribasius and his classical predecessors.