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Open research questions in History of Medicine Studies

34 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,517 History of Medicine Studies papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Het enige onderzoek dat tot op heden opium door middel van chemische analyse heeft weten aan te tonen, in relatie tot de Romeinen, betreft het werk van Vincenti et al. (2023). Echter betreft dit geen Romeins aardewerk, maar aardewerk van Daunisch origine.

    Verdoofd en vereerd: opium als medisch en ritueel middel in het Romeinse Rijk · 2026 · DOI

  • At the same time, disciplines focused on (bio)medical phenomena today-such as critical global health studies, medical humanities, and science and technology studies-are still insufficiently engaged with the voluminous literature produced by historians, including those focused on science, medicine, and technology.

    Medical Cultures, Therapeutic Properties, and Laws in Global History · 2021 · DOI

  • The purpose of using such instruments within the traditional context of Galenic medicine, however, has not been investigated and scholars have consistently assumed that, being subject to the influence of atmospheric pressure and environmental heat, Santorio's instruments provided unreliable measurements.

    The Weight of the Air · 2018 · DOI

  • From his account of how the serum was made using the blood of specially selected and cared-for horses, through to his masterly analysis of how the serum was inserted into France's political economy as an instrument of revenge on German medical science for defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, this is no standard history of drug development, a genre that Simon describes as being "close to the model of biographies for living historical figures" (p.

    Diphtheria Serum as a Technological Object: A Philosophical Analysis of Serotherapy in France 1894–1900 by Jonathan Simon · 2018 · DOI

  • 3 As the editors of this special issue of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine point out, this omission occurs because [End Page 420] drug testing has remained a relatively understudied area among historians of medieval and early modern medicine.

    Therapeutic Proofs and Medical Truths: The Enduring Legacy of Early Modern Drug Trials · 2017 · DOI

  • The medical practice of the enslaved is treated in five thematic chapters, dealing successively with ‘healers’ (including midwives), ‘herbalists’, ‘veterinarians’ (discussed primarily with reference to the famous Makandal, executed for allegedly plotting to poison Europeans in 1758) and ‘kaperlatas’, a term which is not clearly defined but was apparently applied to diviners and purveyors of talismans.

    Medical Revolutionaries: The Enslaved Healers of Eighteenth-Century Saint-Domingue · 2007 · DOI

  • Door chemische analyse op bredere schaal toe te passen kan worden vastgesteld in welke mate opium ten tijde van de Romeinen daadwerkelijk tussen mythe en medicijn balanceerde.

    Verdoofd en vereerd: opium als medisch en ritueel middel in het Romeinse Rijk · 2026 · DOI

  • Though not well known, Constantinos Michael made substantial contributions to medical scholarship and the promotion of Greek history and Hellenic culture, as described in this study.

    Constantinos Michael (1751–1816): 19th Century Doctor and Medical Philosopher · 2022 · DOI

  • It was established that the “Instruction…” is not characterized by “purity” of genre, that it evidently has a mixture of the features of science and a guide.

    Sebastiana Petrycego z Pilzna pouczenia „jak się zachować czasu moru” – instrukcja, nauka czy poradnik? Rekonesans badawczy historyka literatury · 2021 · DOI

  • It is focused on a number of prescriptions for face and body cleansers, though the analysed inventory has been limited to the ones including frankincense.

    On Frankincense-scented Soaps, Peelings and Cleansers or on Cosmetics and Commotics in Antiquity and Early Byzantium · 2021 · DOI

  • Although the data to prove the systematic status of cold / slogutis as an infectious decease in the folk medicine is scarce, the hypothetic possibility remains, encouraging further investigation of these materials.

    Don’t Hurt Anybody, or You’ll Get the Mare: Connections between Common Cold and the Mythical Being slogutis in Lithuanian Folklore · 2017 · DOI

  • The use and meaning of mercury in related disciplines such as medicine and chemistry in the same period have been studied, but our knowledge of anatomical mercury is sparse and tends to focus on technicalities.

    Anatomical Mercury: Changing Understandings of Quicksilver, Blood, and the Lymphatic System, 1650–1800 · 2014 · DOI

  • Very little is known to this point about the practical skills which sixteenth-century physicians needed and applied at the bedside and even less about how these skills were taught to students.

    Bedside Teaching and the Acquisition of Practical Skills in Mid-Sixteenth-Century Padua · 2013 · DOI

  • This subject has not been studied extensively up until now and the article provides a clearer picture of quondam health service institutions in Harju County, the people working as medical staff and whether medical carewas available to people living in rural areas.

    Tervishoiusüsteem Harjumaal 1922–1926: töötajad, asutused, arstiabi kättesaadavus · 2010 · DOI

  • This essay aims to promote further research on the resulting wealth of manuscript and printed sources that give access to crucial social and epistemological issues.

    Medical Expertise, Bodies, and the Law in Early Modern Courts · 2007 · DOI

  • However, the evidence is sparse, and unevenly integrated into the richly documented Colombian case—providing little context with which to understand the particular engagement of scientific—rationalist discourses within Ecuador.

    The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira: Medicine, Ideologies, and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Andes · 2002 · DOI

  • ” You must say that this comes from the liver or from the stomach; and particularly use the word, obstruction, because they do not understand what it means, and it helps greatly that a term is not understood by the people.

    "Bedside Manners in the Middle Ages" · 1997 · DOI

  • Curiously enough, the history of these medical establishments in continental Europe remains very inadequately explored, although several bodies of literature have dealt, either directly or by implication, with this area of inquiry.

    The Salpêtrière in the Age of Charcot: An institutional Perspective on Medical History in the Late Nineteenth Century · 1985 · DOI

  • Much research remains to be done in the area of both medieval and Tudor medicine: no definitive book has yet been written on the character of physicians in Tudor times.

    The History of Medicine in Tudor Times: An Historiographical Survey · 1971 · DOI

  • Nevertheless, the relevance to disease in humans ofthese and other botanical hepatotoxins is inferred from circumstantial evidence and remains to be proved.

    The Spectrum of Hepatotoxicity · 1968 · DOI

  • Brunhdlzl and Be Renzi present conflicting evidence in their apparatus concerning the reading of the several MSS.

    Benedictus Crispus, an Eighth Century Medical Poet · 1966 · DOI

  • They may be either the reward of severe and protracted study, or have been obtained, without previous attendance or examination, from universities where the chief care of the professors seems to be limited to the fees and perquisites of admission.

    Provincial Medical Practice in England 1730–1815 · 1964 · DOI

  • It is only through a careful examination of such sparse information as exists relating to the wages of some of the more numerous classes of artisans and a projection of these data Ti Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, J.

    Incomes of Medieval English Doctors · 1960 · DOI

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34 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,517 History of Medicine Studies papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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