https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/38241 Fri, 24 Apr 2026 18:33:04 GMT 2026-04-24T18:33:04Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/60173 Title: Traditional counter-stimulation practices in a Central Mediterranean island population Authors: Savona-Ventura, Charles Abstract: A review of the medical folklore of the Maltese Islands identifies the use of counter-irritation practices dating to the prehistoric period. These practices are very much reminiscent of those in contemporary Traditional Chinese Medicine. Because of the distances involved, it is unlikely that direct cultural intercourse took place and it is suggested that these similarities were the result of isolated parallel development of ideas based on observation and experimentation. Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/60173 2020-08-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49567 Title: The attainment of knowledge Authors: Savona-Ventura, Charles Abstract: Writing two and a half millennia ago, Confucius stated that “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and Third by experience, which is the bitterest.” The edict fully applies to modern medical education and training. The attainment of knowledge through experience may be the fruit of the personal and/or collective compilation of knowledge gathered by personal observation of individual cases or case series. It may also incorporate formal randomized clinical experimentation to compare outcomes attained from two or more different management options. Originally transmitted down the generations by oral tutor-student communication, it eventually was more widely made available by the publication of case presentations, case series, or randomized controlled trials. This compilation of knowledge by experience is the most bitter since for every success story documented, there would be several failures that would have fallen by the wayside or eventual successes that were only accepted after a pendular shift in attitudes towards their use. The importance of experiential knowledge in current practice can be best illustrated by Isaac Newton’s comment that "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." We are where we are today because of the giants that have preceded us. With their experiential, experimental and rational acquisition of knowledge throughout the ages, they have laid down the foundations of knowledge that we have developed and rely upon in modern practice. Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49567 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49492 Title: The responsibility of the intellectual Abstract: I am honoured to be asked by the Senate of the University of Malta to deliver today’s oration on the occasion of the conferment of doctoral and master degrees from various Faculties of our Alma Mater. Graduates, you may not quite appreciate the historical significance of this occasion, but today you walk in a proud tradition that stretches back over four-and-a-half centuries – to the setting up by the Society of Jesus of the Collegium Melitense authorised by Pope Pius IV on the 29th August 1561 and confirmed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578. The institution that incorporated the church we are gathered in was finally built in 1602 and its doors were opened “in the interest of youth, for the common weal and in honour of the City of Valletta”. After Grandmaster Pinto expelled the Jesuits from Malta, Pope Clement XIV on the 20th October 1769 granted approval for the institution to be changed to a Pubblica Universitá di Studi Generali “with the privileges, prerogatives, pre-eminences, favours and honours granted to other public Universities”. Description: Academic Graduation Oration delivered on 29 November 2017. Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49492 2019-10-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/47493 Title: The art and the science of healing Abstract: The human condition cannot be compartmentalized into separate and convenient facets. The individual, as well as the society he/she lives in, is a complex conglomeration of experiences that transcend all aspects of life. We are what we are because of the way we are made up and because of the experiences we are subject to throughout our lives – a combination of nature and nurture. The Medical Humanities (MH) is an interdisciplinary field of medicine which attempts to personalise medical care, allowing the medical practitioner to apply patient management within the broad canvas that makes up the individual. MH includes all aspects of the humanities (such literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), the social sciences (such anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology, and geography) and the arts themselves (including literature, theatre, film, and visual arts), and the application of all of these to medical education and medical practice. MH is mainly concerned with training medical practitioners: “to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always”. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/47493 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z