Tag: Persia
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The global journey of variolation
Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States Humanity has eliminated only one infectious disease—smallpox. Smallpox is a very old disease and efforts to prevent it are almost as old. They included a technique called variolation, also known as inoculation or engrafting, in which individuals were infected with live smallpox virus to produce a milder form of the…
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A brief history of kidney transplantation
Laura Carreras-Planella Marcella Franquesa Ricardo Lauzurica Francesc E. Borràs Barcelona, Spain We may think of renal transplantation as routine therapy today, but this procedure has taken centuries to develop and is marked by important events in the history of science. An ancient description of the kidneys is found in the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, dated…
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The medical university of Jundi-Shapur
Andrew C. MillerBethesda, Maryland, United States With the exception of the hospital at Jundi-Shapur, hospitals and medical centers as we know them are not known to have existed before AD 400.1 In the late Sassanid period, a considerable scientific movement grew in Persia.2 Jundi-Shapur (Genta Shapitra in Pahlavi, Gondi Shapur in Farsi, Beth Lapat in…