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The Flood is the first pictorial scene that Michelangelo Buonarroti painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. On the right side of the fresco a woman with abnormal breast morphology is presented and the nature of her disease is considered using the Guidelines for Iconodiagnosis. A team of experts covering art history, art expertise, medicine, genetics, and pathology undertook the process and concluded that the pathology shown is probably breast cancer, most likely linked to the symbolic significance of an inevitable death as expressed in the Book of Genesis., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Located at the base of the skull, the pituitary gland has a long and controversial history, not only in terms of its anatomy, but especially in the functions it performs and in the attempt to approach it surgically. Considered by Galen of Pergamon to have a role in releasing waste products of the brain, a theory accepted until the 17th century, the pituitary gland became a separate entity once with the anatomical descriptions of the famous Andreas Vesalius. At the beginning of the 18th century, researches of the time began to be more and more interested in this gland, trying to identify its functions, and at the same time correcting the traditional theories that were wrong or incomplete. Later, they turned their attention to experimental animal studies that represented the germinal nucleus for the transcranial and endoscopic pituitary surgery. In this review, an attempt has been made to record the entire history of anatomy, physiology and surgery of the pituitary gland, from antiquity to the current day's surgical techniques., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Stephan Schätzl was the parish priest of Viechtwang, Upper Austria. He lived in the aftermath of the Peace of Augsburg in a period of schism between Roman Catholics and Lutherans. His portrait, depicted only 6 days before his demise in 1590, shows that he had extreme ante mortem cachexia. Documentary sources detailed his life and ill-health and it is proposed that he had chronic gastro-duodenal ulcerative disease which ultimately led his to death., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Dante Alighieri died in 1321; therefore, 2021 is the 700th anniversary of his death. His best known work is the Divine Comedy, which explores Dante's journey through the three realms of the underworld. Each realm is associated with three different sensations: Inferno, bodily (pain); Purgatorio, acoustic (music); and Paradiso, visual (light). The progression of the painful experiences and the resolution through music and light mirror the modern understanding of pain and its management. Music has both direct and indirect benefits and can help with coping. Sunlight promotes well-being and self-awareness., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Postgraduate Medical Journal. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Since Antiquity, votive offerings were deposited in temples dedicated to deities in order to fulfil a special request of a supplicant. Later, in Orthodox churches, votive offerings entered in the form of anatomical ex-voto or tamata, metallic effigies that realistically represented the disease-affected portion of the body. In this paper, we show four tamata from eighteenth-nineteenth century identified in the museum of the Orthodox monastery of Floresti (Romania); votive offerings that represent ocular pathologies. Even if the supplicants did not have a medical background and often did not fully understand their diseases, the votive offerings demonstrate their ability to observe pathological changes, at the same time emphasising the importance of their faith in the healing process., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Biochemical investigations were carried out on the embalmed head of Nebiri (Museo Egizio, Turin; S-5109)-an 18th Dynasty Ancient Egyptian dignitary-and on the canopic jar containing his lungs (Museo Egizio, Turin; S. 5111/02) with the aim of characterizing the organ's (lung) specific paleo-proteins and of identifying the compounds used in his embalming "recipe". The application of a functionalized film method allowed us to perform a non-invasive sampling. Paleo-proteomics confirmed the presence of lung tissue-specific proteins (organ specific) as well as the presence of proteins linked to severe inflammation. Paleoproteomics and paleometabolomics further allowed the identification of the main components of Nebiri's embalming recipe: animal fats and glue, balms, essential oils, aromatic plants, heated Pistacia, and coniferous resins. Both the use of Pistacia and coniferous resins in an early 18th Dynasty individual confirm Nebiri's high social status. The technique applied offers a targeted approach to the chemical characterization of human tissues, embalming compounds, and organic materials layering in pottery. The ability of the functionalized film method to harvest all types of compounds, from macromolecules (i.e., proteins) to small molecules (i.e., organic acids) opens a new path in the study of ancient material culture; furthermore, it allows to perform untargeted analysis, which is necessary when no a priori information is available.

Background: As the world has challenged/argued with the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years, there has been an increase in vaccine misinformation. Although immunity against Covid-19 infection is limited to 4-6 months and requires at least three doses of vaccine to be maximally effective, the current vaccination campaign in industrialized countries shows that vaccinated citizens experience greater immunological protection against severe forms of the disease than unvaccinated citizens., Methodology: A perusal of the literature was performed in order to reconstruct the communication methods applied in the managing of the Covid-19 pandemic; the management of the current pandemic was compared with the management of another scourge of the past: poliomyelitis., Results/discussion: In order to raise public awareness on public health issues, it is essential that governments and institutions communicate scientific data to all sections of the population in an unambiguous way. In this sense, it is essential to apply "prebunking", which is a layered defense system available to society that prevents misinformation before it is spread. This is to avoid the subsequent debunking of false information, which generates insecurity and fuels fears. Belief in medical misinformation represents a meaningful problem for public health efforts to fight Covid-19 through vaccination., Conclusion/perspectives: In this sense an example of proper management of one of the many epidemics of the recent past, poliomyelitis, should make us reflect on the effectiveness of past approaches. This testimony from the past can provide us with food for thought regarding how to face the present Covid-19 pandemic and to prepare for the future. Certainly, it shows us how the awful pandemics/epidemics from the past was handled and finally overcome, despite perceived risk and vaccine hesitancy., (© 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

There exist numerous reports on violence in South American populations which shed a particular light on life and living conditions in those historic communities. Most studies have been performed on collections of isolated skulls. Whole-body investigations especially on well-preserved mummified human remains are rare. In the present study we investigated three South American mummies predating the Colonial Spanish period. The "Marburg" man lived between 996 and 1147 CE and was buried in typical burial bundle. The analysis of the textiles, ceramics and fishing tools associated with his naturally mummified body suggests that he most likely originated from the Arica region in Northern Chile and was possibly part of a fishing community. The "Delémont" natural mummies belong to an adult male and an adult female, respectively. The mummies, the textiles and grave goods were investigated. The ceramics suggest a provenance from the Arequipa region, supposing that all the artifacts were originally associated with the two mummies. The Delémont male mummy is 14 C dated between 902 and 994 CE and the "Delémont" female mummy 14 C dated between 1224 and 1282 CE. All mummies underwent Multidetector Computed Tomography which showed evidence of trauma, some of which were interpreted as evidence of interpersonal violence. An interdisciplinary approach was applied with the particular intention to identify trauma sequels and to evaluate their paleo-forensic potential. Evidence of violence was identified in the two male individuals. Our study provides evidence that the interdisciplinary investigation of well-preserved human remains may detect much more frequent traces of intentional trauma than previously thought. Particularly, trauma against the body may not be identified in studies on skulls alone, and trauma residues of internal organs/soft tissues will only be seen in mummies. We therefore add further evidence of two cases of (lethal) trauma in pre-colonial South-American male individuals., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Begerock, Loynes, Peschel, Verano, Bianucci, Martinez Armijo, González and Nerlich.)

Aim: To confirm that the sixteenth century surgeon-anatomist, Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, used a woman who died of a ruptured uterus as a model for a woodcut of female genital anatomy, and that the presentation was based on the cloak in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam after visiting the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican whilst he was in Rome., Method: Analysis of the woodcut for evidence of a uterus at term, and comparison with the shape of the cloak in the Creation of Adam , coupled with Berengario's own description., Results: The size of the uterus is that in the 38th to 40th week of pregnancy, further supported by striations of the endometrial surface, rather than the smooth surface of the non-gravid. By rotating the woman's image 90° counterclockwise, the outline of the woman's cloak becomes almost perfectly superimposed over God's cloak., Conclusion: In the woodcut, the open belly of the model shows typical features of the full-term uterus. The use of God's cloak softens the features. At the same time, it exemplifies the creative power of God and describes the birth of humanity in both theological and physiological ways. Intertwining art, religion and anatomy, Michelangelo and Berengario allow scholars to appreciate the concepts of divinity and humanity at multiple levels.

In this article the origins of Mary Shelley's neurological and cerebrovascular problems are described. Through a reanalysis of her biography, her early health issues caused by a dermatological condition, potentially eczema, psoriasis or chickenpox, are related, thanks to current biomedical knowledge, to her migraines and strokes, including the one that killed her.

Abstract: We describe the peculiar facial morphology of a carved head dating to the end of the Roman Republican period (40 BCE) which displays evident unilateral asymmetry. A comprehensive discussion of the different etiologies is provided and a contextualization of this condition in the broader frame of Roman artistic verism is offered. This case study contributes to the knowledge of disease presentation in the ancient world, with a special focus on the anatomy of soft tissue pathology., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD.)

Brainstem is one of the most complex structures of the human body, and has the most complex intracranial anatomy, which makes surgery at this level the most difficult. Due to its hidden position, the brainstem became known later by anatomists, and moreover, brainstem surgery cannot be understood without knowing the evolution of ideas in neuroanatomy, neuropathology, and neuroscience. Starting from the first attempts at identifying brainstem anatomy in prehistory and antiquity, the history of brainstem discoveries and approach may be divided into four periods: macroscopic anatomy, microscopic anatomy and neurophysiology, posterior fossa surgery, and brainstem surgery. From the first trepanning of the posterior fossa and later finger surgery, to the occurrence of safe entry zones, this paper aims to review how neuroanatomy and brainstem surgery were understood historically, and how the surgical technique evolved from Galen of Pergamon up to the twenty-first century., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.)

Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.