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The Plague of Ashdod (1630) Nicholas Poussin

The artwork “The Plague of Ashdod” was created by the French painter Nicolas Poussin in 1630. It portrays the biblical narrative of a divine plague inflicted upon the people of Ashdod. 

This dramatic scene of divine punishment is described in the Old Testament. The Philistines are stricken with plague in their city of Ashdod because they have stolen the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites and placed it in their pagan temple. You can see the decorated golden casket of the Ark between the pillars of the temple. People look around in horror at their dead and dying companions. One man leans over the corpses of his wife and child and covers his nose to avoid the stench. Rats scurry towards the bodies. The broken statue of their deity, Dagon, and the tumbled down stone column further convey the Philistines’ downfall.

In the artwork, Poussin vividly depicts the turmoil and suffering caused by the plague. The foreground is filled with the stricken inhabitants of Ashdod; their bodies are contorted in agony or limp in the stillness of death, illustrating the mercilessness of the affliction. The variety of postures and expressions captures the range of human suffering and chaos that accompanies such disaster. 

Amongst the afflicted, several figures stand out due to their dynamic gestures or central placement within the composition, drawing the viewer’s eye and emphasizing the emotional impact of the scene. In the background, classical architecture gives a sense of order and permanence that starkly contrasts with the disarray and despair of the figures. Poussin’s use of colour and light skilfully highlights the drama, with the dark and earthy tones of the suffering masses set against the lighter, more serene sky, which suggests divine presence or intervention.

Poussin’s use of color and light skillfully highlights the drama, with the dark and earthy tones of the suffering masses set against the lighter, more serene sky, which suggests divine presence or intervention. The overall effect is one of a carefully structured scene that conveys a narrative full of intensity and profound human drama, characteristic of the religious paintings of the period and the classical style Poussin is renowned for. Poussin began to paint The Plague of Ashdod while the bubonic plague was still raging throughout Italy though sparing Rome. He first called the painting The Miracle in the Temple of Dagon, but later it became known as The Plague of Ashdod.

The painting most importantly provides a view into how illness and diseases were feared at that time in the past and the fact that people had the knowledge that it was transmissible during that time period which was the 16th century.

𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡! 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡! 𝐖𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝟓𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥! ♥️🍾🍷#scriveners
𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 ‘𝘌𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦’!╰(°▽°)╯
𝕸𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘!🎄🎅𝕸𝖆𝖞 𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖊𝖘 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖊!

🥳𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬! 𝐖𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲! 🎉 scrionl.blog ♡
🚨𝐃𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡!🚨
𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭!📱
𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ‘𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭’ 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝! 📞

𝐓𝐡𝐞 ‘𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 & 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 & 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 & 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬’ 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞!💙
𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 ‘𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐬’ 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐃𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭!⚡️
𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬! 𝐖𝐞’𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬! 🍾 🍷
𝓒𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓫𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓰’𝓼 1-𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓪𝓻𝔂!🍾🍷

Exploring the Meaning of Medical Anthropology, Conducting Research on Indigenous Shamans of Peru, and Notes on the Cholera Epidemic Part 3

Some treat their curing work as a divine calling; others seem more like pragmatic businessmen. Yet, there are striking similarities in the paths that led these exceptional individuals to the occupation of curandero, and there is an underlying curing philosophy that unites them. Our primary objective is ethnographic, to record in detail the symbolic system…

Exploring the Meaning of Medical Anthropology, Conducting Research on Indigenous Shamans of Peru, and Notes on the Cholera Epidemic Part 2

Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on a Cholera Epidemic Medical anthropology theory is a blend of social science, epidemiological, and biological perspectives on disease. The most effective way to show how these theoretical threads come together in medical anthropology is to introduce them separately. Theories operate at an abstract level. They reduce the complexity of a…

Exploring the Meaning of Medical Anthropology, Conducting Research on Indigenous Shamans of Peru, and Notes on the Cholera Epidemic Part 1

North coast of Peru, 1980: It’s three in the morning, the ocean breeze is wet and cold. It is not clear if my present nausea is attributable to the mescaline-bearing San Pedro (Trichocereus pachanoi) brew with which I began the evening or to the vile black-leaf tobacco sludge I have been asked to snort repeatedly.…

Improving Survival Rates Against ALS and FTD

Being a medical student and having ALS is a toxic concoction of health longevity. Yentli Soto Albrecht is a researcher on ALS at Penn Medicine alongside her battles with the neuro-degenerative disease. She was genetically tested for having the disease and lost her 66 year old father to the same disease in 2024. Her goal…

An Online 3D Atlas of Human Organs

The Human Organ Atlas is made possible by funding from: The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The German Registry of COVID-19 Autopsies (DeRegCOVID), supported by the German Federal Ministry of Health, The UK Medical Research Council (MRC), The Royal Academy of Engineering, The Wellcome Trust. The Human Organ Atlas (HOA), an…

The Unprecedented and Undisputed Wave of AI Doctors

This is Doctor Kevin Adewale, he wants you to know that he’s not an all-bs cardiac surgeon, he’s probably from Kenya but he could be Sudanese or Jamaican whatever your eyes want you to believe in… hmm he’s also got a strong following, a pretty fancy YouTuber thing he’s got going on. He’s yet to…

  • AI to replace/help in medicine?

    by

    Nivea Vaz ,
    2–4 minutes

    A woeful argument in defence of my opinion.

    While it might take around 50-100 years to reach an AI model that would be equipped with enough knowledge to diagnose, it would also mean that it would take even longer to add more knowledge on aiding research with precision and accuracy like nothing we’ve ever seen.

    Language models have the capability to reshape medicine but not anytime soon and not in the way that you think at the moment I believe. AI models ‘hallucinate’ making up information that isn’t there. This could be a danger to doctors relying on it for diagnosing rare cases and an end of life care. A more acceptable approach would be rather to create an app that can connect to specialist doctors who could suggest approaches and give differential diagnostics. The language models rely on an input and output which would mean realistically you need doctors who are specialists with years of training under their belt to fill in the gaps of information/knowledge that AI lacks. Revolutionising primary care visit by giving priority access care to certain groups like the elderly and the young could prevent this over-reliance on the AI model. Yes this saves time for doctors. Yes this reduces visit durations potentially. But think about what you were trained for in the first place, and keep in mind that there’s a doctor shortage. We need each and every one of you. If AI is as brilliant as Sam Altman claims it’s gotta replace doctors at the snap of my fingers. Think about it.

    All AI is at the end of the day is a bunch of programming with multiple chips inserted to make it faster and more powerful. What’s happened to all the trust in the physicians? Imagine the number of years we take to strive to be the best we possibly can for our patients? It’s all madness to me now! Keep in mind that even to access loads of case histories, Chat GPT-5 needs to get immediate access to clinical databases with patient history that many even in this technological age view as a personal asset of theirs! What happened to gathering around a table stressing out, beating around the clock, pondering over what the medical mystery truly is? Sam Altman’s creation wants you to believe in his product, as much as I want you to believe in how intelligent doctors can be!

    Now they say AI helps us, the next day they say AI can beat us?! The ultimate question is how far Sam Altman will go to prove that he’s a technological prodigy?

    We could improve the medical curriculum by incorporating a change in our way of approaching rare cases and a chapter at the undergraduate level on how to provide end of life care, its pros and cons, its ethics, etc. What happened to those days, the days when doctors were the Herculean heroes that they once were?! It makes you question everything.

    I mean, the more Sam Altman releases the newer ChatGPT versions, the more questions I start to ask with worry. I mean what’s to become of our future? Medical literature is a vast ocean, you can never learn too much nor too little.

    Writing off,

    Nivea Vaz

     

    Credit: Unsplash

    Access to the Open Evidence Database:

    https://www.openevidence.com

     

    There’s an AI app for doctors called Open Evidence:

    https://www.gv.com/news/openevidence-ai-doctors

    The founder is now a billionaire…

    More on Sam Altman’s past right here;

    https://youtu.be/HCNXmPJvl48?si=1rjSvnaZ957npQ9N

    His current situation with ChatGPT 5;

    https://youtu.be/R3yEUCyPsFo?si=tL8UmpH2sHFmpoyo

     

    Informational reads:

    https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-023-04698-z#:~:text=Integrating%20AI%20into%20healthcare%20holds,and%20influence%20patient%2Dphysician%20trust.

     

     

     

    Rating: 5 out of 5.

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    𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚑𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚞𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎-𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜! 𝚄𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢, 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 ‘𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚑𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎.’

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