JournalTOCs School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK Email: journaltocs@hw.ac.uk Tel: +00 44 (0)131 4513762  Your IP address: 18.207.157.152 |
JournalTOCs School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK Email: journaltocs@hw.ac.uk Tel: +00 44 (0)131 4513762 Your IP address: 18.207.157.152 |
Open Access journal
In modern times, 15 missionary hospitals were established in Shanghai, including 6 Protestant hospitals and 9 Catholic hospitals. These hospitals were the products of Western missionaries in China. The establishment of missionary hospitals objectively introduced Western medicine into China and changed its original medical system. Based on documents and periodicals, Shanghai archives, Xujiahui library materials, hospital historical records, and domestic and foreign library historical materials, this paper systematically reviews the development of missionary hospitals in Shanghai, and discusses their balance between medicine and religion, to provide ideas and references for future research.
Bencao Tujing (Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica) is a brilliant and monumental compendium of materia medica by Su Song, which was published in 1061 and gathered ancestral knowledge from the Song dynasty as a legacy for posterity. The compendium emphasized the clinical applications of medicinal materials collected nationwide, which used illustrated atlases as references. The descriptions for each medicinal material subsumed the prescriptions containing it and were supplemented with relevant medical cases. Medical prescriptions predating the Song dynasty were included, which enhanced the clinical usefulness of the pharmacopoeia. The ancestral knowledge of materia medica was extensively merged with natural history throughout the compendium, which also made extensive reference to more than 200 Chinese classics, local gazetteers, and published works from the social and natural sciences. The inclusion of natural history and literature works changed the convention used in earlier pharmacopoeias to present medicines based solely on pharmacological analyses. The compendium also pioneered the inclusion of natural history in pharmacopoeia. Bencao Tujing helped establish China's leading position in the field of materia medica. Su Song's meticulous nature, truth-seeking attitude, and adherence to scientific thinking are truly worthy of emulation and promotion.
“Daoyin Benjing” (Art of Nourishing Life) discusses the kidney meridian in depth. It is a dense and heterogeneous text that is heavily influenced by Daoism. The text proposes rules for the maintenance of life using language that is often cryptic and understandable only to the initiated. This language is closely interwoven with the classical terms of traditional Chinese medicine. The kidney is the home of vital energy, which is a type of sexual energy and the root of life. Engagement in moderate sexual activity nourishes life and leads to a long life. This is the goal of every Daoist follower and the goal of every doctor.
Objective: Shugan Hewei therapy (SHT) acts to soothe the liver and harmonize the stomach. It is a classical traditional Chinese medicine method widely used in China to treat chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) due to liver qi invading the stomach. However, the clinical effects of SHT remain unclear. We aimed to evaluate the overall clinical effective rate and safety of SHT in treating CAG.Methods: We used the Jadad scale and Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool to evaluate the methodological quality of studies investigating SHT. Eight medical databases were searched to identify relevant studies. After data extraction and quality evaluation, 27 randomized controlled trials, including 2,441 patients, were considered eligible for analysis. No serious heterogeneity or publication bias was observed across the included studies. We used Revman 5.3 statistical software to evaluate the general clinical effective rate and safety of SHT.Results: The results showed that SHT was more effective (RR=1.25; 95% CI [1.20, 1.29]; P
Objective: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of transdermal preparations of Sinomenium acutum (SA) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of SA transdermal preparations for RA were extracted from relevant databases and screened in accordance with the inclusion criteria. The Cochrane System Evaluation Manual (version 5.1.0) was used to assess the quality of the included trials. We used the Cochrane Review Manager (version 5.4) to conduct the meta-analysis.Results: Six trials comprising 436 patients (220 patients in the treatment group and 216 patients in the control group) were analyzed. The meta-analysis indicated that SA transdermal preparations in combination with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) enhanced the overall effect (odds ratio [OR] 3.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] [2.25, 7.00], P
Aṣtāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā (Compendium of the Essence of the Eight Branches)is one of the most important works on Ayurvedic medicine from ancient India. It provides a comprehensive overview and synthesis of Ayurvedic theories from different schools of thought. With concise and clear contents, it was an essential textbook for Ayurvedic medicine in India and many other regions at the time it was written. This article summarizes the main contents of the book, reviews the current status of research, and finds that the modern research on Aṣtāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā focuses on religious philosophy, the theory of bodily humors, discussion of drug use, and its relationship with Chinese medicine. The book was widely disseminated in the areas surrounding India and influenced Tibetan and Arabic medicine, as well as multiethnic medicine along the Silk Road.
No abstract available
Qian Cao (Radix et Rhizoma Rubiae) is a perennial grass with red and yellow pigments in its roots. It has been used since ancient times for fabric dyeing and painting, and it's the oldest red dye in both Europe and China. Xi Yang Qian (Rubia tirctorum L.) spread from the East to the West, while Zhong Guo Qian (Rubia cordifolia L.) spread from the West to the East. Both were integral in the development of Chinese and Western color cultures. Nowadays, although it is no longer commonly used in dyes and paints, Qian Cao is still used in clinical medicine as a medicinal herb.
The standardization of terms and definitions is fundamental to all activities in the domain of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). For decades, definitions of TCM terminology relied on conventional verbal representations to differentiate between related concepts. However, the ancient Chinese is obscure and comprises a massive volume of information, making it difficult to convey the definition accurately in other languages. This article proposes a potential solution that the definition for pulse terminology can be supplemented by modern means of non-verbal representation, i.e., using pulse waveform graphs and parameters to complete the definition of each pulse. A discussion of the challenges of obtaining reliable data is also included.
