Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

medicaments, continued with stubbornness by Hildanus, was not
enough to make the medical profession aware of the problem: his
remained for a long time a lone voice. (Borghi & Canti, 1986; Fabry von
Hilden, 1936) (The life and works of Quilhelmus Fabricius Hildanus
[1560–1634] by Ellis Jones) In 1646 Fabricius Hildanus (1560–1634)
wrote ‘Opera observationum et Curationum medico-chirurgicarum
quae extant medico omnia’ [All existing medical accounts of
observations and medico-surgical cures].
1625 First recorded use of the thermometer for studying disease by
Santorius. He also invented a pulse clock (Santorius, 1625).
1628 William Harvey published ‘Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et
sanginis in animalibus’ [An anatomical treatise concerning the
movement of the heart and the blood in living things] describing the
circulation of blood.
1629 The language used to describe illness is illustrated by the Bills of
Mortality for London. The deaths were investigated by ‘searchers’,
usually ancient matrons, who examined the body for which they were
paid one groat. This is the first time that numbers were given for
deaths and, therefore, one of the earliest examples of epidemiology.
The language highlights the problems of understanding the meaning
of the descriptions of ADRs. The present meanings of the illnesses:
Figure 6. Bill of Mortality for London 1629
(EML ,192
Blasted and Plannet= sudden affliction
Burst =? Rupture
Canker = ulcers of mouth/cheek
Chrissome = died before baptism
Falling sickness = epilepsy
Flocks = haemorraghic smallpox
Flux = dysentery or diarrhoea
Frets =? meaning obscure
Impostume = abcess
Jawfalne = ?tetanus
Meagrome = migraine
Wolfe = probably lupus vulgaris
King’s Evil = tuberculosis of the neck
Livergrowne = enlarged liver
Mother = possibly murder or ?hysteria
Purples = purpura