LICATA M.

Introduction: Issues of disposal of fetal remains and related parental distress do not concern only the present. This contribution aims at offering a glimpse of what grieving management concerning perinatal death must have been in ancient times. The discussion of the topic of death and treatment of perinatal remains is based on historical,...

No description

Human historical findings of the past represent a precious scientific and cultural source for acquiring knowledge of humankind's evolution. In Italy, still timidly, albeit with a greater frequency if compared to the past, the ethical reflection is turning its attention over processing the material mentioned above, which dwells in an...

Letter To Editor.

A paper, wrote in 1890 by the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, reveals a pioneer attempt to preserve the animal mummies from ancient Egypt with the purpose of expanding our knowledge on the former and present-day faunas of the Nile Valley. That request to enhance our historical understanding of the past from the standpoint of the animals was...

On May 16, 2017, the judgment of the Italian court ended the legal battle concerning the repatriation request of the famous skull, belonging to the "brigand" Giuseppe Villella. During the autopsy examination on the corpse of Villella, Lombroso observed a median occipital dimple on the skull, a feature visible in other mammals, including...

We discuss a particular case of an artificially deformed skull discovered in Naples in 1892 and published in the Italian Journal of Natural Sciences by the anthropologist Abele De Blasio. To comprehend the observations of the researcher about the "defects of intelligence" caused by the artificial deformation of the skull, we will also analyze...

We present a case of psychiatric and anthropological diagnosis of microcephaly published in 1912 in the Journal of Experimental Phreniatry and Forensic Medicine of Mental Alienations (Rivista Sperimentale di Freniatria e Medicina Legale delle Alienazioni Mentali). From the reading of this publication, we analyse the point of view of the...

We present an interesting clinical history of acromegaly published in the Italian Experimental Journal of Phreniatry and Legal Medicine of Mental Alienations in 1897 by doctors Imerio Monteverdi and Carlo Tor-racchi. The case allows us to reconstruct the knowledge of the time on acromegaly and to discuss why the role of the pituitary gland in...

No description

Controversies and scepticism about vaccination have existed as vaccination itself. Today and yester-day, the authority of religious leaders has a fundamental role for convince members of their congregations to accept or reject vaccination. Our contribution tells of the stratagem used by the Italian doctor Luigi Sacco to make the faithful lean...

No description

No description

This work has the main purpose to show Neoplatonist and magical-hermetic influences on the non-linear and complex pathway leading the nascent scientific psychiatry's philosophy and practice towards its more mature developments, throughout an excursus from Cardano et Fracastoro, passing by the breaking point represented by Paracelsus, to Van...

From the medical report published in the "Rivista Italiana di Scienze Naturali" in 1890 about a forensic examination conducted on two mummified fetuses, we discuss the interdisciplinary approach in forensic field. Already in this nineteenth-century case, we note how the multidisciplinary approach was able to answer certain questions. During the...

Introduction: The assumption of substances in order to increase physical performances is a phenomenon practiced for millennia with the use of a large variety of substances. The growing spread of the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, once limited to professional athletes, represents a significant public health issue involving multiple...

No description

The authors' aim is to define a framework around the history of studies and analyses on cranial trepanation. In addition, based on the analytical approach of Abele de Blasio, the authors would like to reach an understanding of the various different interpretations of the origin and aetiology of the art of cranial trepanation, starting in the...

In death and mourning, why should we think that rites adapt to psychology and not vice-versa? Or believe that psychological workings grow into a rite or ritual? When analysing practices related to rites of passage, death emerges as a rupture – or breakage – of social status. (www.actabiomedica.it).

In the first half of the 20th century, in most European countries, it was thought that cholinesterase and other drugs that counteract acetylcholine should reduce the manifestations of schizophrenia. In 1937, Fiamberti (1894–1970) introduced the transorbital method of lobotomy which established the use of acetylcholine shock treatment for curing...

Background: The increasing attention to the potential application of technology in medicine repre-sents a dangerous warning in the direction of a reductionist approach. The academic system should therefore be strongly engaged to ensure even in medical practice the greatest enhancement of the human dimension. Targets: How much space is offered...

More than a century after the death of Cesare Lombroso, who still today is considered the founder of Criminal Anthropology, the debate on the atavisms theory seems far from over. The theories of Lombroso that, in the middle of the nineteenth century, have affected the course of investigations and criminal trials have once again been used to...