/library/oar/handle/123456789/34309 2025-11-12T23:16:53Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/16124 Title: The St. Luke`s Hospital Gazette : volume 9 issue 2 Abstract: The editorial sets off with a well-deserved praise to this periodical, whereby with this issue "The St. Luke's Hospital Gazette" concludes its ninth year of existence. It has been by far the longest lived local medical periodical, it is in the "World List of Medical Periodicals". Reference is made to the meeting of the International Academy of Legal Medicine and Social Medicine recently held successfully in Malta. A list of the Malta representatives is also presented. A note on a subject brought up in the last issue, namely on suicide is forwarded by Mr. Joseph Galea, mainly consisting of a list of suicides in Malta between 1800 and 1900. Within the “Medical News” information is provided about outstanding lectures given by physicians, as well as advancements, new appointments, seminars and an obituary section. Further reference deals with the nomenclature for chronic lung diseases, specifically regarding the relative objectives and topics discussed. A recent “Publications List” and a “Book review” section are also indicated. An Index containing an alphabetical list of the authors and the titles of the articles is also included. 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/16114 Title: Hospital services in Gozo at the time of the Knights Authors: Borg, Joseph Abstract: In the main town of Gozo, then known as Rabat, Grand Master De Vilhena, who had built so much for the Order and for Malta, saw to the erection of the hospital at St. Francis's Square, providing it with its two main large entrances leading to the male and female sections. Grand Master De Vilhena donated about 1,000 "scudi" to have the works completed. The hospital began to be used for men patients in June 1728, but soon became fully operative for both sexes as from St. John's Day 1729. This Gozo hospital is now mostly referred to as "Victoria Hospital", while its Geriatric or so-called Incurable section situated at the lower-level apartments, is usually called “St. John the Baptist Hospital" in memory of the Order. 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/16099 Title: A note on the economics of medical practice in eighteenth century Malta Authors: Cassar, Paul Abstract: This paper deals with this facet of the practice of medicine in Malta in so far as the financial aspects of the care and treatment of opulent and highly placed members of the Order of St. John during part of the eighteenth century were concerned. The three manuscripts surveyed in this paper throw light on the relations of practitioners with their wealthy and aristocratic patients. They also give an insight into the social scene of eighteenth century Malta as it affected the financial side of medical practice and provide us with the names of the "successful" medical men and pharmacists of the time who had reached the front line of their profession from 1750 to 1798. A chronological list of physicians, surgeons, pharmacists and medical auxiliaries who attended sick knights during this period is provided. 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/16091 Title: The serpent of Aesculapius, the confraternity of Ss. Cosmas and Damian and the Bishop of Malta Authors: Cassar, Paul Abstract: Towards the end of 1859 we come across a record of a few letters exchanged between the confraternity and the Minor Conventuals. The topic which gave rise to this correspondence was the altar of the confraternity in St. Francis Church, Valletta. Sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century the altar was rebuilt in the form of "a sepulchral urn flanked by two large trunks or rods of Aesculapius entwined by serpents and serving as columns to support the altar slab". These trunks and serpents were meant to symbolise the medical and allied professions but in the view of the Archbishop Bishop Mgr. Publio Maria Sant they were pagan symbols so that one could not say whether "the altar was Christian or pagan or a mixture of both. This medico-ecclesiastical controversy shows how the religious factor has shaped the pattern of the social, political, artistic and intellectual life of Malta in the past. 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z