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In the late 19th century, German physiologist Otto Frank (1865-1944) embarked on a near life-long research program of laying down the mathematical, methodological, and theoretical foundations in order to understand and define the performance of the heart and circulatory system in all their complexity. The existence of the "Frank-Starling law" testifies to this. Two of his seminal publications have been translated into English previously, introducing Frank's research on the dynamics of the heart and the arterial pulse to a wider audience. It is likely that there are a host of other comparable achievements and publications of Frank that are still unknown to the international scientific (cardiological and physiological) community. However, their influence can still be felt and seen in modern cardiology and cardio-physiology, such as in the development of modern interactive simulating and teaching programs. We have translated and commented on ten of these papers, which can be read in parallel with the German originals. These publications show a wealth of theoretical assumptions and projections regarding the importance of the sarcomere, the development of models of contraction, thermo-dynamical considerations for muscular activity, differences between cardiac and skeletal muscles, problems related to methodology and measurement, and the first pressure-volume diagram (published 120 years ago). These topics were envisioned by Frank long before they became a focus of subsequent modern research. Nowadays, frequent measurements of pressure-volume relationships are made in research using the pressure-volume conductance catheter technique. In commenting Frank's scientific topics, we try to show how interconnected his thinking was, and thus how it enabled him to cover such a wide range of subjects.

During the last decades an, international discussion has started on how to reduce the gender gap in women's and men's health. Feminist activists and public health scientists in Canada, Latin America (foremost Brazil), the States and South Africa issued a declaration of intention to focus on health impacts caused by gender-related domestic violence. In Europe, and particularly in Germany, the topic as an issue of medical care has lately been given increased attention. In this article, we present activities undertaken to overcome the obstacles in integrating the topic of domestic violence as a medical issue. The successful Brazilian strategy served as a model, in particular for implementing a hot-line for victims of domestic violence within the day-to-day clinical setting. The General Medical Council (Arztekammer), the Women's Medical Association of Lower-Saxony, and the Hanover Medical School founded a working committee "domestic violence" in co-operation with the Ministry of Women, Work and Social Affairs. Between 2002 and 2003, this task force worked out several guidelines and hand-outs for physicians to promote gender-sensitive treatment of abused women, gaining increasing acceptance by the German medical care providers in medical education and in-training services for physicians.

Since the time of Descartes science has been influenced by the demand for precision and accuracy in research. In the 20 th century also humanities began to submit to this demand. The term precision itself has a far-reaching and historically grown semantics. As a consequence of the attempt to answer precisely and irrefutably to scientific questions, achieved knowledge today is only valid for an increasingly narrow range.

Respiratory interactions with the heart have remained a challenging physiological phenomenon since their discovery more than two hundred and fifty years ago. In the course of translating the seminal publications of Carl Ludwig and his disciple Pavel Petrovich Einbrodt into English, we became aware of some under-appreciated aspects of their work that contain useful insights into the history of the phenomenon now called respiratory arrhythmia. Ludwig observed arrhythmic effects of respiratory movements in experiments on dogs and horses and published his findings in 1847. He subsequently undertook further work on this problem, together with Einbrodt. Already in 1847 Ludwig had mentioned an exciting observation on the possible role of mechanical factors of the respiratory movements on the action of the heart in a dog in whom he had artificially induced bouts of coughing. Einbrodt decided to systematically develop methods to increase or decrease the pressure of the air the animal had to breathe. He observed that this procedure led to a greater or lesser degree of compression or decompression of all the organs in the thoracic cavity without apparently causing harmful consequences during the time of its application. How the mechanical influence of breathing affects cardiac activity during respiratory arrhythmia has been the subject of scientific discussions and controversies over a period of more than 150 years and is still unresolved. Recent publications suggest that cardiac mechano-electrical coupling plays an important role in the emergence of cardio-respiratory interdependence.

Johannes Müller was the founder of the first school of physiology in Germany. His anatomical, morphological and physiological research as well as his epistemological view of scientific medicine opened the way to a deeper understanding of the structure and the function of the organism. With important discoveries like the law of sense energy, the reflex movement and the definition of different organic stimuli, he enriched the knowledge of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and sensory physiology and smoothed the way to an experimental physiology. All his famous students like Hermann von Helmholtz, Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Ernst Brücke, Jakob Henle, Robert Remak, Rudolf Virchow and Ernst Haeckel solved many crucial research problems, which Müller identified and pointed out to them as open questions, due to the insufficient methods of investigation. Müller's research method, epistemological view of biological sciences, and his open-minded personal style encouraged the development of new methods adapted to particular problems.

The phenomenon of self-healing forces has again and again challenged doctors in the different historical periods of medical science. They relied on effects of self-healing forces in diagnosis and therapy. They also tried to explain these effects based on the current model of organism. The understanding of this phenomenon has always influenced the understanding of therapy and played a role in defining the concept of health and disease. In the 17th and 18th century the idea of self-healing force was interpreted as a phenomenon related to the organic forces, whereas in the 19th century the explanation was reduced to a materialistic mechanism. Nowadays the knowledge of heath-shock-proteins open the way of a new understanding of the organic defense mechanisms.

Recent molecular-biological and molecular-genetic research has shown that important cellular-based autoprotective mechanisms are mediated by heat-shock proteins (HSPs) or stress-response proteins, also called 'chaperones'. This can happen because cells react to extracellular stimuli by activating signal transduction pathways which result in activating the genetic program. Molecular biologists and cardiologists are tempted to evaluate these phenomena in respect to their potential meaning for a better understanding of the complex notions of health and disease. When molecular geneticists or cardiologists talk about autoprotective or natural defense mechanisms, and physicians talk about salutogenesis, they all mean something very specific. The phenomenon seen here belongs to the body's own defense mechanisms which make it capable of reacting to harmful influences and allow it to stabilize a structure and/or function of the body for a certain period. Here we see a connecting link to the historically grounded term self-healing forces, which has challenged medical doctors in the different historical periods of medical science. They tried to explain these effects based on the current model of the organism. Their understanding of this phenomenon played a role in defining the concept of health and disease. Thus, it seems very fitting to look back into history, since the phenomena discussed here as well as the insights into autoprotective mechanisms will continue to influence medical understanding of health and disease.

We hypothesize that in all physiotherapeutically oriented procedures of naturotherapy — such as helio-, climate-, thalasso- or hydrotherapy or certain forms of physical exercise — the transient expression of stress-proteins (heat-shock proteins, HSPs) is an important element of salutogenesis. These therapeutical procedures all cause a transitory ‘disturbance’ by an unspecific stressor that leads to functional responses. These functional responses can be trained and thus increase the forces and the capacity for resistance of the organism. The autoprotective mechanisms which we want to deal with in more detail are based on the functions of the heat-shock proteins (HSPs, stress-response proteins, ‘chaperones’) and represent archaic autoprotective responses. In addition, more complex mechanisms of autoprotection seem to have evolved that may play a role in the natural defenses against disease and which show a hierarchy of various genomically conserved strategies with different time-constants and time windows. This becomes apparent by studying autoprotective responses of the cardiovascular system of warm-blooded animals under ischemic stress. Recent extensive experimental protocols and clinical observations in elucidating the molecular basis of cardiac ischemia show that powerful autoprotective mechanisms are involved in the phenomena of ‘hibernation’, ‘stunning’, and ‘ischemic preconditioning’. The system of the heat-shock proteins may therefore be regarded as a basic model for the principle of autoprotection and salutogenesis.

Die Entwicklung der Psychiatrie im Deutschland des 20. Jahrhunderts war von Radikalität, Stagnation und Reformwillen gleichermaßen geprägt. Dieser Band präsentiert aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zur psychiatrischen Praxis und ihren Institutionen vom Kaiserreich bis zur Deutschen Einheit. Der Alltag von Psychiatriebetroffenen im Spiegel der Entwicklung der Anstalten und die Veränderung therapeutischer Ansätze werden dabei ebenso analysiert wie die Perspektive der Patienten, ihrer Angehörigen und der Öffentlichkeit auf die Psychiatrie. Die fundierte Bestandsaufnahme bietet einen facettenreichen Blick auf die Brüche und Kontinuitäten der deutschen Geschichte psychiatrischen Handelns.

Developpement des methodes d'investigation en medecine au XIX e siecle, pour visualiser et diagnostiquer une maladie

In 1819, he started his medical studies at the University of Bonn in Germany. In 1826, he formulated the Law of Specific Sense Energy. With his anatomical and physiological research he became one of the most important scientists of life sciences in Europe. Since 1833 until his death, he was director of the Institute of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Berlin. He mainly worked in the field of sensory, haematological, pathological anatomy and physiology as well as systematic zoology and marine biology. Muller's exceptional position in the history of medicine and zoology was not only connected with his own research, but was also due to his epistemological reflections on scientific physiology and experimental medicine and his role as an influential and important teacher. Keywords: history of medicine; physiology; anatomy; marine biology; law of sensory energy; 19th century; Germany

War es 2004 noch angemessen zu fragen, wozu und warum ein Textbuch zu Gender Medicine fur die klinische Praxis publiziert werden sollte, so hat sich bis zum Jahr 2007 diesbezuglich einiges verandert. Nicht nur der Begriff “Gender”, sondern auch der Terminus “Gender Medicine” bzw. “Gender Medizin” hat Eingang in die Diskussion innerhalb der Medizin und vor allem auf politischer und damit auch journalistischer Ebene gefunden. Die vielen Rezensionen, die die erste Auflage unseres Buches begleiteten, haben sicher mit dazu beigetragen, dass bei den Arztinnen und Arzten Gender Medizin nicht mehr ein vollig unbekanntes Terrain ist. Das Angebot der Herausgeber der Wiener Medizinischen Wochenschrift, ein Sonderheft zum Thema Gender Medizin zu publizieren (Rieder und Lohff, 2004) hat den Herausgeberinnen die Moglichkeit gegeben, diese Perspektive auf die klinische Medizin zu unterstreichen und damit zu bewirken, dass der Begriff Gender und speziell Gender Medizin im deutschsprachigen Raum zunehmend ein vertrauter Begriff und ein wichtiges klinisches Forschungsgebiet werden kann. Besonders gefreut hat uns, dass diese Publikation im Strasbourg Committee of Experts on the Inclusion of Gender Differences in Health Policy (SP-SHF), Council of Europe als “Best practice example” gewurdigt wurde (2007, in press). Es hat uns ebenfalls gefreut, dass wir fur eine politische Berucksichtigung des Gender-Aspektes in Osterreich und Deutschland mit diesem Buchprojekt bei den Ministerien Interesse wecken konnten. Diese positive Resonanz hat uns und den Springer-Verlag als auch alle Autoren motiviert, eine zweite, erweiterte und uberarbeitete Auflage herauszugeben.

Um die Bedeutung von Geschlecht in der medizinischen Ausbildung zu untersuchen und Verfahren zu ermitteln, die schrittweise die Gender-Perspektive von den Gesundheitswissenschaften wie den Gender Studies als interdisziplinares Programm in die medizinische Lehre transferieren, wurde an der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover, Abteilung Geschichte, Ethik und Philosophie der Medizin, in Kooperation mit der Universitat Bristol, School for Policy Studies, ein zweijahriges von der EU finanziertes Forschungsprojekt zwischen 2001 und 2003 durchgefuhrt. Die Studie zeigte, dass die Kategorie Geschlecht in der europaischen universitaren Ausbildung von MedizinerInnen erst allmahlich Einzug halt. Dabei sind die Fragestellungen vorwiegend auf biologische Geschlechterdifferenzen der PatientInnen bezogen, wahrend die Geschlechterforschung sich auch auf das Geschlechterverhaltnis im Beruf, der Interaktion und Kommunikation, Fuhrungsstile etc. bezieht. Durch das Aufgreifen dieses Zugangs konnen neue Einsichten uber die Beziehung zwischen ArztInnen und PatientInnen, aber auch von Lehrenden und Lernenden gewonnen werden.

At the end of the 18th century the French physicians discussed Johann Georg Zimmermann's medical concepts (i.e. medical experience, the influence of the soul on health and disease). In contrast to the German scientists, the French, especially those from the School of Montpellier, accepted Zimmermann's medical views as a confirmation of vitalism and neohippocratic medicine. In Germany, Zimmermann's medical works fell into oblivion after his death until the middle of 20th century. This may be a concequence of his intimate contacts to the European high nobility and of his polemic attacks against friends and enemies as well as his contempt for all forms of democracy and the French Revolution.