| Ad vesice dolorem et ad eos qui urinam non faciunt (For bladder pain and when a person cannot urinate): nephrological disorders in Anglo-Saxon medicine. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 20013730 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
The attitude of 19th century (and even of 20th century) scholars toward medieval and, particularly, Anglo-Saxon medicine has been of severe criticism. According to them it was filled with superstition and stupidities. However, in these last fifty years research has proved that, compared with the Continent, Anglo-Saxon England was not a backwater. At the end of the ninth century, medical compendia in Old English began to appear, similar in structure and contents to the Latin dynamidia and to the Latin herbals. These medical treatises were written in the vernacular of the Anglo-Saxons, not in Latin, the western European language for all significant and valuable works on medicine. Bladder, kidney and urinating problems are mentioned throughout the Old English medical treatises together with their cures, that is remedies from herbs and animals. These texts contain no theoretical reflections, only very concise descriptions of symptoms (pain in the bladder, in the kidneys, difficulty in urinating etc.), while prognosis is limited to affirmations such as "he will heal very quickly," "soon there will be no pain," "it will soon be healed," etc. Remedies are made basically out of a body of medicinal plants and materials which can be traced to Greek and Roman medicine. The remedies from plants reflect a wide rational and practical knowledge of medicinal herbs. As a matter of fact, not only there is no amuletic use of plants, but most of the herbs that appear in these recipes have diuretic or analgesic properties and have been in use for centuries. |
| | |
Authors:
|
Maria A D'Aronco |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Historical Article; Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: Journal of nephrology Volume: 22 Suppl 14 ISSN: 1121-8428 ISO Abbreviation: J. Nephrol. Publication Date: 2009 Nov-Dec |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2009-12-16 Completed Date: 2010-04-22 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 9012268 Medline TA: J Nephrol Country: Italy |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 42-9 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
|
Department of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Udine, Udine, Italy. daronco@uniud.it |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
Herbal Medicine
/
history History, Medieval Humans Kidney Diseases / history Manuscripts, Medical / history* Nephrology / history* |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Practice, theory and authority in a Middle English medical text: "Barton's Urines Which He Treated a...
Next Document: Reception of uroscopy in Scandinavia.