Also...
Lois Densky-Wolf, Archivist at the Smith Library of
the Health Sciences at UMDNJ in Newark has access to
early dictionaries that would answer some of your
questions.
DFKent
333 Elmwood Ave J420
Maplewood, NJ 07040
[log in to unmask]
--- Karen Reeds <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I've done this kind of modernizing "translation"
> of old medicine as a consultant for the National
> Library of Medicine's Turning the Page project on
> Elizabeth Blackwell's 18th C herbal (you can look
> at some other TTP projects on early medical books
> at
> http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/intro.htm).
> It was a fascinating task and made me conscious
> of subtle changes in the use of medical language,
> but I found myself turning to many old English
> and Latin dictionaries for help. If there's a
> Rosetta Stone for this, I haven't found it.
>
> I usually started with the big Oxford English
> Dictionary (not the Compact edition)--any big
> public or academic library should have it on the
> shelf or access to the online edition
> http://www.oed.com/ ). Caduceus-L in history of
> medicine and C18-L in 18th C studies are
> listserves with lots of scholars who delight in
> answering this kind of question. Both lists would
> be interested in hearing about your collection of
> manuscripts.
>
> But here's the real hitch--most of these terms
> will be rooted in a very different system (or
> systems) of explaining health and disease from
> what we have today. So, you have to explain that
> context as well as the term. The words usually
> don't have simple equivalents. Even if they seem
> to be familiar words, you have to be
> wary--today's "virus" means something very
> different from the pre-Germ Theory of Disease
> use of the word.
>
> And to be fair to the people who wrote those
> manuscripts in the first place, you have to find
> ways to do it without mocking their language and
> beliefs or dismissing them as quaint. You become,
> in effect, an anthropologist of the past,
> explaining a different culture's way of
> understanding the world to your visitors.
>
> You can do quick searches for definitions in a
> host of pre-1702 English dictionaries at
> http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/
> (Lexicons of Early Modern English). But this is
> what you will get under the "LEME Quick Lexicon
> Search" for, e.g. dyspepsia:
> Thomas Cooper
> Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae
> 1584
> Dyspepsia, dyspepsiæ Galenus. Ill concoction.
> Thomas Thomas
> Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae
> 1587
> Dyspepsia, æ, f.g. Galen. Ill concoction, or
> digestion, rawnes of stomacke.
>
> If you google on dyspepsia to find a modern
> definition, a consumer health website will give
> you something like this: "Dyspepsia is a pain or
> an uncomfortable feeling in the upper middle part
> of your stomach. ... Often, dyspepsia is caused
> by a stomach ulcer or acid reflux disease."
> (http://familydoctor.org/474.xml)
>
> Both the 16th century and the 21st century
> definitions mean "a pain in the stomach," but
> they explain the site, character and cause of
> the pain quite differently. The folks who wrote
> your manuscripts would be as puzzled by "stomach
> ulcer" and "acid reflux disease" as you are by
> "dyspepsia."
>
> For cataloguing the material, I think you should
> keep the original terms and add the more modern
> semi-equivalents in brackets as you decode them.
> If you are planning exhibits and programs and
> writing labels, then I'd urge you to check with
> historian of medicine who knows the lingo of the
> period.
>
>
> Karen Reeds
> Historian of medicine and museum consultant
> Guest curator, Come into a New World: Linnaeus and
> America,
> American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia
> (Feb 15--June 30, 2007)
> http://www.americanswedish.org/
>
> --------
> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:20:53 -0400
> From: Erin Crissman <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: historical medical dictionary/reference?
>
> Does anyone know of a good source of translation for
> 18th and 19th century
> references to medical problems and treatments? We
> are cataloguing a large
> collection of family manuscripts and are looking for
> a way to better
> describe things like "blister plasters,"
> "chilblains," "dyspepsia," and
> various "nervous conditions"... web resources would
> be great!
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Erin Elizabeth Crissman
> Curator
> Historic Cherry Hill
> 523 1/2 South Pearl St.
> Albany, NY 12202
> p.518.434.4791
> f.518.434.4806
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
=========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may
> obtain detailed information about the listserv
> commands by sending a one line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] . The body of the
> message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one
> line e-mail message to [log in to unmask]
> . The body of the message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
