Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Moments in History

  • Jeremy Bentham: Dead but not gone

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “How little service soever it may have been in my power to render to mankind during my lifetime, I shall at least be not altogether useless after my death.”1– Jeremy Bentham The English polymath Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was a philosopher, jurist, and social reformer. His collected works started to be assembled in…

  • Vespasian toilets

    Titus Flavius Vespasianus became Roman emperor in AD 69 following the death of Nero and the brief reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Remembered for his conquest of Judea and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by his son Titus, Vespasian set about to restore the damage and destruction the city and its empire had…

  • Women’s equality in the Viking era: The tooth tells the truth

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Women had “relatively free status” in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark during the Viking Era (700–1000 AD), based on the criteria of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.1,2 For instance, paternal aunts, nieces, and granddaughters had the right to inherit property. In the absence of male relatives,…

  • The death of the Serenissima (1797)

    To approve [Napoleon’s] demands, the Great Council was called for Friday 12 May. From soon after sunrise the people of Venice had been congregating in the Piazza, just as they had done countless times before in the city’s history. In the past, however, they had usually assembled for purposes of celebration. Never before had they…

  • Limping into victory

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel There were people with disabilities in history who were not “limping into oblivion,”1 but rather paved their way to accomplishments and victories.2 The emperor Claudius, who may have had cerebral palsy or dystonia, reigned in the first century AD. During that time, the Roman Empire expanded greatly. He decreed that if…

  • Relieving pain by injection

    Until the middle of the nineteenth century, doctors had considerable difficulty in relieving the pain of their patients in that they could only administer medicines by mouth, enema, or suppository. The notion of injecting drugs into a vein had been stimulated by the attempts of Christopher Wren, Richard Lower, and Jean Baptiste Denys to transfuse…

  • Tobacco: Dr. Monardes’ miracle cure

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “[Tobacco] is an hearb of great affirmation for the excellent vertues that it hath.”1– Nicolás Monardes, MD (translated by John Frampton, 1577) “A custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs…”2– James I of England, 1604 Nicolás Monardes (1493–1588) earned his bachelor’s degree…

  • Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) and Dr. Isaac Luzzatto

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel While attending a meeting in Vienna and enjoying its old buildings, parks, and museums, I found myself, as usual, reading the names of the streets and various historical plaques on the walls. To my surprise, I saw in central Vienna a plaque dedicated to a man called “Metastasio.”1 Metastasis is a…

  • The death of Pierleone da Spoletto

    The Umbrian Renaissance physician Pierleone da Spoleto (c. 1445–1492) was a polymath, “one who has studied much” and many different subjects.1,2 Sometimes also called Pier Leoni, he descended from an aristocratic family in Spoleto and is believed to have studied in Rome and obtained degrees in medicine and astrology. He was appointed academic professor in…

  • Caterina Sforza of Forli: Warrior and medical alchemist

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Fearless, beautiful, and cunning, Caterina Sforza (1462–1509) fought heroically to defend her fiefdoms of Imola and Forli until the bitter end. Even the celebrated and infamous Renaissance strategist, Niccolò Machiavelli, remarked that he had met his match in Caterina, and confessed he could not outwit her. Historians laud her as…