Originally, a hospital was any building appropriated for the reception of any class of persons who were unable to supply their own wants, and were more or less dependent upon public help to have those wants supplied. Hence hospitals were of various kinds, according to the nature of the wants they supplied and the class of persons for whom they are intended. A large number of hospitals were medical; others were for the reception of incurables; others for the aged and infirm; others for the education of children of people in reduced circumstances; others for the reception of the wounded in battle; and so on.
The first establishments of this nature are believed to belong to the 4th century AD. Their primary object was to afford a shelter to strangers and travellers, and it was only occasionally that the sick and infirm were admitted. One of the earliest hospitals of which we have any satisfactory information was that established by the emperor Valens at Caesarea about the end of the 4th century, and which was conducted on a very large scale.
The Arabs in Spain, at an early period of their occupation of that country, founded a magnificent hospital at Cordova, where physicians were trained, who did a vast deal to advance the study of medicine. The Arabs have also the dubious credit of having founded the first mental hospital (then known as a lunatic asylum) in Europe, which was erected in the city of Granada. The majority of hospitals everywhere are medical, often called infirmaries. These may be divided into general and special hospitals, the former class admitting cases of all kinds; the latter class admitting only patients suffering from some special trouble. Thus there were formerly lying-in hospitals, cancer, consumption, ophthalmic, lock (for venereal diseases), fever, and small-pox hospitals. There are also hospitals for children, and for persons suffering from incurable diseases. Such institutions formerly served a double purpose, inasmuch as they not only afford the best medical advice and treatment to the poor, who otherwise were unable to obtain it prior to the formation of the national health service, but also supplied the best means of giving instruction in medicine and surgery, as in them students had the opportunity of witnessing cases of nearly every variety of disease, and observing how they it was treated by the physicians and surgeons. For this reason a good infirmary or medical hospital was considered an indispensable adjunct to every school of medicine and surgery. Research Hospital
Goat pox is an epidemic disease of goats caused by a virus infection and characterized by fever and a papulovesicular eruption of the skin and mucous membranes. Research Goat Pox
John Thomas was an American soldier. He was born in 1725 at Massachusetts and died in 1776. He commanded a regiment under General Amherst at Crown Point in 1760, and aided in the capture of Montreal. He was appointed a brigadier-general by the Provincial Congress in 1775. He had charge of the fortification of Dorchester Heights, which led to the evacuation of Boston by the British. In 1776 he was given command in Canada, but died of small-pox. Research John Thomas
Orlando Gibbons was an English composer. He was born in 1583 at Cambridge and died in 1625 of small-pox. He is associated with the development of music for stringed instruments, although he was an organ player. At the age of twenty-one he was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal, and in 1622 he received the degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Oxford. Three years later he died of small-pox at Canterbury, where he had gone to be present at the marriage of Charles I with Henrietta of France. He was buried in CanterburyCathedral, where his wife caused a magnificent tomb to be erected to him. He is the author of Madrigals and Anthems (Hosanna to the Son of David! Almighty and Everlasting God! etc). Research Orlando Gibbons
Thomas Blacklock was a Scottish poet. He was born in 1721 at Annan and died in 1791. At the age of six months he lost his sight due to small pox and as he grew up, his father, who was a bricklayer, and other friends, read to him the English classics. At the age of nineteen he lost his father, and was supported by Dr. Stephenson, a physician in Edinburgh, who sent him to school and to the university.
In 1746 he brought out a volume of poems, and soon gained a wide circle of friends, amongst whom were David Hume and Joseph Spence, who wrote an account of his life, prefixed to the third edition of his poems in 1756. After passing through the usual theological course he was licensed in 1759; he married in 1762; and was soon after appointed minister of Kirkcudbright. Being opposed by his parishioners, he resigned his living, and retired to Edinburgh, where he received students of the university as boarders, and assisted them in their studies.
In 1766 he was created DD. A letter written by him to a friend of Burns in 1786 is said by the poet to have induced him to give up his intended emigration and go to Edinburgh. Blacklock wrote, besides his poems, several prose works. Research Thomas Blacklock
Consumption, or Phthisis was a name formerly given for various diseases known by emaciation (serious loss of weight), debility, cough, hectic fever, and purulent expectoration, particularly tuberculosis which was unknown at the time. The predisposing causes were believed to be very variable, and around 1900 were reliably listed as: hereditary taint, scrofulous diathesis, syphilis, small-pox, etc; exposure to fumes and dusty air in certain trades; violent passions and excess of various kinds, sudden lowering of the temperature of the body, etc. The more immediate or occasional causes were thought to be pneumonic inflammation proceeding to suppuration, catarrh, asthma, and tubercles in the lungs, the last of which is was by far the most general.
The incipient symptoms usually varied with the cause of the disease; but when it arose from tubercles it was usually marked by a short dry cough that became habitual, but from which nothing was spat up for some time except a frothy mucus. The breathing was at the same time somewhat impeded, the body became gradually leaner, and great languor, with indolence, dejection, and loss of appetite prevailed. At a later stage the cough became more troublesome, particularly by night, and was attended with an expectoration, the matter of which assumed a greenish colour and purulent appearance, being on many occasions streaked with blood. In some cases a more severe degree of blood-spitting attended, and the patient spat up a considerable quantity of florid, frothy blood. At a more advanced period of the disease a pain was sometimes felt on one side in so high a degree as to prevent the person from lying easily on that side; but it more frequently happened that it was felt only on making a full inspiration, or coughing.
At the first commencement of the disease the pulse was often natural, but it afterwards became full, hard, and frequent. At the same time the face flushed, particularly after eating, the palms of the hands and soles of the feet were affected with burning heat; the respiration was difficult and laborious; evening exacerbations became obvious, and by degrees the fever assumed the hectic form with remittent exacerbations twice every day, at noon and evening. From the first appearance of the hectic symptoms the urine was high coloured, and deposited a copious branny red sediment. At this time the patient was usually costive; but in the more advanced stages a diarrhoea often came on, colliquative sweats likewise broke out, and these alternated with each other, and induced great debility.
Some days before death the extremities became cold. In some cases a delirium preceded that event. The morbid appearance most frequently to be met with on the dissection of those who had died of phthisis was the existence of tubercles in the cellular substance of the lungs, most usually at the upper and back part, or occupying the outer part, and forming adhesions to the pleura.
By about 1905 the tubercles were generally attributed to a special bacillus, and this was correctly being regarded as the originating cause of the disease, which could be conveyed from one person to another, that is, it was infectious. In fact, what had been discovered was Tuberculosis, but as it was not yet identified, various diseases were being blamed and the whole grouped under the popular term 'consumption'.
The treatment for consumption at the end of the Victorian era in Britain was based around healthy diet and fresh air, one source quoting: 'The diet should be nutritious, but not heating, or difficult of digestion. Milk, especially that of the ass; farinaceous vegetables; acescent fruits; animal soups; and, above all, cod-liver oil, etc, are usually given. It is also of the utmost importance to see that the digestive organs are in proper working order. As much open air as possible, combined with abundance of nutritious food, is at present the treatment in vogue. With regard to urgent symptoms requiring palliation, the cough may be allayed by demulcents, but especially mild opiates swallowed slowly; colliquative sweats by acids, particularly the mineral; diarrhoea by chalk and other astringents, or by small doses of opium.' Research Consumption
Gamma globulin is a mixture of proteins in plasma, the fluid portion of blood. It contains antibodies produced in the liver, spleen, bonemarrow, and lymphatic glands to protect the body from invading viruses or bacteria. Each disease antigen stimulates production of a specific antibody, which circulates in the blood for a period of time. Since the gamma globulin contains these antibodies, it is sometimes taken from patients who have recovered from chickenpox, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases and given to confer a rapid but short- term immunity on persons recently exposed to those diseases.
Persons who suffer from an unusual deficiency of gamma globulin known as agammaglobulinemia are deficient in antibodies and may require periodic infusions of gamma globulin to maintain protection. In 1969 scientists in England and at Rockefeller University determined the chemical structure of gamma globulin, an important advance in the knowledge of immunity. Research Gamma Globulin
A pox is a disease characterised by the formation of pustules on the skin that often leave pockmarks when healed, for example chicken pox. Research Pox
Home Alone 3 is a comedy starring Alex D Linz, Olek Krupa, Rya Kihistedt, Lenny Von Dohlen and David Thornton in a story about a child at home alone with chickenpox while four industrial spies are after a stolen computer chip hidden inside one of his toys. Home Alone 3 was directed by Raja Gosnell in 1997. Research Home Alone 3
Beauty Culture is the art of improving the physical appearance. The practice of painting the face, of dressing the hair, and of using lotions and perfumes to enhance natural beauty dates back to ancient times. Unguent jars, still fragrant with musk, were found in the 4,000-year old tomb of King Tutankhamen. Cosmetics, oils for the skin, perfumes, and aromatic baths were known to the Egyptians. Henna, which is still used as a hair dye and by the Arabs for painting the hands, was used in the time of Cleopatra to colour the finger and toe nails.
The Greeks used perfumes, many of which were imported from Egypt, and also experimented with hair dyes and bleaches. They introduced cosmetics into the Roman Empire, and by the time of Nero it was common for Romans of both sexes to use perfumes, and to indulge in luxurious baths. Kohl (still used by the Arabs) was used for painting the eyes, pumice powder for whitening the teeth, and fucus as a rouge for the lips and cheeks.
Cosmetics were first used in Britain at the time of the Roman occupation, but they were uncommon until many centuries later. During the 11th and 12th centuries the Crusaders brought all kinds of perfumes and cosmetics from the east. In Elizabethan times powders, rouges, and eyecosmetics were popular; ladies-in-waiting took milk baths; Mary, Queen of Scots, bathed in wine. These practices were suppressed during the Commonwealth, but were revived under Charles II.
Small-pox scars and the ravages of other diseases were concealed by means of heavy make-up. Herbal lotions and packs were later sold to improve the complexion, but it was not until the 20th century that make-up became generally accepted by women of all classes.
The manufacture of cosmetics has now developed into a major industry, and many women pay regular visits to beauty salons, not only for treatment for their hair (the first permanent 'wave', created in 1905 by Charles Nessler, was a painful nine hour operation), but for massage, skin conditioning, facial treatment and manicure. Since the Second World War toilet preparations for men have become increasingly popular, and modern fashions with their revealing lines and emphasis on active leisure clothes have dictated greater attention to the body as well as the face for both sexes. Salons specialising not merely in getting rid of excess fat, but in developing perfect proportions and fitness by exercises and other means, have multiplied to become common place in the west today. Research Beauty Culture
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Hospital
