Medical history of Malta / [Paul Cassar].

  • Paul Cassar
Date:
1964 [i.e. 1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medical history of Malta / [Paul Cassar]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the dead. The custom of burning corpses was first introduced in the Island by Copper Age man but while the latter’s custom was the consequence of his religious beliefs, the Greek practice of destroying corpses by burning was inspired by sanitary motives. Thus it is related that cremation was adopted by the Athenians as a sanitary measure following the invasion of Athens by plague in 430 b.c.24 Cinerary urns of classical times still full of ashes have been discovered in sepulchral caves of this period in these Islands together with clay vessels that contained the balsams and other liquids that were poured over the corpse during the cremation.25 The Romans came next in 242 b.c. and stayed for over one thousand years. Though their occupation of the Island was mainly a military one a few vestiges of medical interest belonging to this period have come down to us. The archeological remains of private and public baths or thermae that are to be found in various parts of the Maltese Islands testify to the high standards of personal and domestic hygiene that prevailed in Roman Malta. Ruins of these buildings have been discovered at Mdina, Marsa, Kordin and Dingli. They were built of marble with richly decorated pavements of mosaic and were fed by a constant supply of water which was conveyed through underground lead pipes from nearby springs.26 Some of the houses, such as the ‘Roman Villa’ at Rabat, and the buildings at Ramla Bay (Gozo) and Ghajn Tuffieha were also supplied with hot water in winter from a ‘calidariunT placed at some distance from the house.27 Among the ruins of the Roman thermae of Ghajn Tuffieha there is a room containing a number of privies.28 This room was ten feet square and along three of its walls was ranged a sort of stone bench, one foot high, made of vertical and horizontal slabs. The upper surface of the bench had nine circular holes cut in it at a distance of about two feet from one another to serve as closet seats. A very striking characteristic of these seats, from the sanitary point of view, is the small rectangular notch cut in their thickness in front which prevented contact of the male genital organ with the seat—a feature of our modern U-shaped lavatory seat. It is also noteworthy that the stone slabs containing the seat were moveable, an arrangement that readily permitted inspection and cleaning of the underlying space and the introduction of dry earth to cover the excreta. Some skeletal remains found in tombs of this period furnish us with a few items of pathological nature. An examination of these bones, preserved in our Museum, resulted in the following findings: (a) a well- known anatomical variation of the sacrum was evident in a beautifully 24 Caruana, A. A., Report on the Phoenician and Roman Antiquities in the Group of the Islands of Malta, Malta, 1882, p. 102. 25 Ibid., p. 102. 26 Ibid., p. 62. 27 Zammit, T., ‘The Roman Villa Museum at Rabat’, Archivum Melitense, 1918, iii. 241. Report on the Work of the Museum Department for 1931-32, Malta, p. v. 28 Zammit, T., ‘Roman Villa and Thermae at Ghain Tuffieha, Malta’, Bulletin of the Museum, Malta, 1931, i. 62.
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