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The eighteenth century
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Puerperal infection ‘When the Discharge of the Lochia ceased ... it was followed by that of a foetid, sanious, black Ichor ... she was cured, by the Help of anodine detersive [cleansing] injections, and taking some few Medicines of the hysterical Tribe, by the Advice of her Physician.’
Epid. 1–7 (ἐπιδημιῶν, epidemiarum)
Published in Elizabeth M. Craik, The ‘Hippocratic’ Corpus, 2014
As in the other works, theories about bodily composition are prominent. The word χυμοί ‘humours’ is prominent in a dense practical account of the manipulation of elements in the body (6. 2. 1; cf. 6. 2. 14; 6. 2. 16); in a more theoretical passage, bodily elements are defined as the fatty, yellow bile, blood and black, sc. bile (τὸ μὲν πῖον, χολὴν ξανθήν, τὸ δ ̓ αἷμα, μέλαιναν 6. 6. 1). Humours are viewed, in some undefined way, as ‘cognate’ (κατὰ τῶν χυμῶν τὴν ξυγγένειαν 6. 3. 24). Thus, if elements associated with bile and blood are not removed, they tend to black bile (6. 6. 14). Several passages are indicative of the interpenetration and adulteration of body fluids: phlegm is vomited (6. 1. 5); some diseases arise from phlegm (6. 5. 15); bilious matter is vomited (6. 4. 4); urine and spittle may contain blood (6. 1. 5; 6. 3. 24); blood may contain ichor. In some cases, the precise nature of moisture is indifferent: long menstrual cycles result when women are moist (lit. ‘watery’, ὑδαταίνουσαι 6. 1. 6); after haemorrhage people lose moisture (lit. ‘lose water’ ἐξυδεροῦνται 6. 4. 9). Individuals are described as having tendencies to a particular makeup, in some cases allied to tendencies to a particular disease: those with black bile tend to seizures (μελαγχολικοί are associated with ἐπίληπτοι 6. 8. 31; one who is μελαγχολικός vomits black matter 6. 1. 11). Interest in the interplay between physical and mental or emotional wellbeing is apparent (6. 4. 4; 6. 5. 5; 6. 7. 6; 6. 8. 10).
The Roman Empire
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
Elephantiasis, which he noted was unknown in Italy, is the only disease with skin involvement addressed in Book III, and he gives a lengthy description of the natural course of that disease—which we know today to be leprosy. In Book V, he dealt with wounds, ulcers, gangrene, and various growths and cancers. His exposition on the fluids that seep from wounds is elaborate; he classified these fluids into broad categories of blood, sanies, and pus, and he further subdivided sanies and pus into the now-extinct terms of ichor, melicera, and elaoides, the presence of which reflect the overall healthiness of a wound. For example, Celsus reported that blood, sanies, pus, and elaoides are visible in healthy wounds, but ichor and melicera are produced by unhealthy ones.12Ichor, incidentally, is a term that was originally used in Greek mythology to name the ethereal fluid that flowed in the veins of the Greek gods. Celsus continued to describe these wound fluids in even greater detail in the succeeding paragraph, demonstrating the extreme focus on detail in his task. There are multiple pages on different types of wounds and how to care for wounds in various stages, from the healthy to the gangrenous. Several words of caution that stand out in this chapter include his comment on erysipelas, which can complicate wounds or occur without wound; the latter “carries with it considerable danger, especially if it fix itself near the neck or head.”13 He discouraged bathing gangrenous wounds “because the wound softened by this means is attacked with a renewal of the same malady.”14
Platelet aggregation measured by single-platelet counting and using PFA-100 devices
Published in Platelets, 2018
Natalia Dovlatova, Stan Heptinstall
There is a commercially available assay Plateletworks® (Helena Laboratories, Beaumont, TX) paired with the Ichor Hematology Analyzer (Helena Laboratories) for testing platelet responses in whole blood to ADP, arachidonic acid (AA) and collagen. One blood collection tube contains EDTA and this provides the baseline platelet count and the degree of platelet aggregation in another tube (no EDTA) is calculated as a reduction in the number of single platelets in response to one of the listed agonists (29). These tubes need to be mixed manually, which is a step in the assay that can add variability to the results. The test was shown to have some value in assessing the effects of GPIIb/IIIa antagonists (30) and P2Y12 receptor antagonists (31), but not the effect of aspirin (32), although in this study collagen was used as an agonist, which is less specific for detecting aspirin response as compared to AA.
Valdemar’s Abjection: Poe, Kristeva, Masculinity, and Victim-Monsters
Published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 2018
If, as I am suggesting, Poe’s work reproduces the phobic tableau of onanism’s mutation into homosexual group activity in Sylvester Graham’s lectures, other moments are especially suggestive. “For the purpose of relieving M. Valdemar from the mesmeric trance, I made use of the customary passes. … The first indication of revival was afforded by a partial descent of the iris. … this lowering of the pupil was accompanied by the profuse out-flowing of a yellowish ichor (from beneath the lids) of a pungent and highly offensive odor” (Poe, 2000, p. 1242). The eye’s emission of fluid combined with its strong olfactory offense evokes the debilitated onanist’s emission of semen, eventually an involuntary discharge due to repeated self-pollution, while Valdemar’s blackened, vibrating tongue continuously in a state of emission parallels the diseased penis of the onanist.