Claudius' Iodized Catgut

Silk, Catgut, and Wound Infections *

Whether absorbable or non-absorbable suture material should be used in the repair of wounds has long been a highly controversial subject. Popular favor has swung from one extreme to the other repeatedly in the last century. Lord Lister was responsible for the initial popularity of catgut, just as Kocher was one of the first to abandon its use in favor of a non-absorbable material, i.e., silk. H...

Models, Sherlock Holmes and the Emperor Claudius

Recently, a number of authors have suggested that we understand scientific models in the same way as fictional characters, like Sherlock Holmes. The biggest challenge for this approach concerns the ontology of fictional characters. I consider two responses to this challenge, given by Roman Frigg, Ronald Giere and Peter Godfrey-Smith, and argue that neither is successful. I then suggest an alter...

Buried Silk, Catgut and Strabismus Sutures.

Iodized Salt and U.S. Development

The importance of micronutrients in human development has received increasing attention both in medical science and in economic policymaking. Iodine de…ciency is one of the most discussed issues related to micronutrients in the context of less developed countries. Given that systematic evidence of the e¤ectiveness of iodine supplementation in developing countries is still lacking, my study eval...

Claudius Galen of Pergamum: authority of medieval medicine.

Claudius Galen and his scholarly teachings defined the practice of medicine in Western Europe for 1500 years (Figure 1). His empiric approach, based on original animal experimentation, and his reputation for miraculous cures had an enormous influence on Western medicine during the Middle Ages and Renaissance until William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of blood in the early seventeenth c...