Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Month: January 2017

  • Euterpe Deconstructed: Reflections on the health, illness, and legacy of Wolfgang Mozart

    Vincent de LuiseNew Haven, Connecticut, United States Who was Mozart? Of course, we all know his music. The music! That music, so refined and richly textured, melodic, timeless, ineffably beautiful, and sublime. But, who was Mozart? Who was the man behind those genius creations? So much has been written and said about Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus…

  • A musical vision: the eyes of Bach and Handel

    Vincent P. de LuiseNew Haven, Connecticut, United States George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, the towering musical giants of the Baroque, were both coincidently born in Germany about a month apart, in 1685. They also shared the musical style distinctive of the high Baroque characterized by the masterful use of counterpoint and fugal composition.…

  • Historical reflections on cause, responsibility and blame in medicine

    William AlburyNew England, Armidale, Australia Debauchery and disease In the early years of British settlement in Australia the colonial authorities regarded drunkenness as one of the major evils of the day. Their preoccupation with this social problem was mirrored by the concern of the colony’s medical men with drunkenness as a cause of illness. In…

  • From changelings to extraterrestrials: Depictions of autism in popular culture

    William AlburyNew England, Armidale, Australia While evolution of the modern concept of autism dates from the middle of the twentieth century, evidence suggests that behaviors which are now considered autistic have occurred in the human species since its prehistoric origins (Spikins). The cause of autism is unknown, and its diagnosis can be controversial, but its…

  • Undreamt dreams can happen

    Vladimir HachinskiLondon, Ontario, Canada My love of music began on a toy piano. In Caripito, Venezuela where I grew up, immigrant families visited each other often. I particularly liked it when we visited one Russian family, where one of the boys had a toy piano. He let me play on it. My father was impressed…

  • Illuminating the third millennium with flashes of experience from the 20th century

    William H. WehrmacherMaywood, Illinois, United States As we vigorously plunge into our third millennium, we may gain some guidance by carefully examining the pathway experienced during the 20th century. During the first half of the 20th century, civilization expanded and improved explosively, progressing substantially in communication, transportation, food production, and manufacturing. Medical societies, publications, and…

  • Chopin’s heart

    Wilfred ArnoldKansas, United States In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birthday Frédéric Chopin was born near Warsaw, Poland in 1810. From 1831 he lived mostly in France, where he achieved international acclaim for his music despite a debilitating and life-shortening illness. He first began to cough up blood in 1835, and this eventually…

  • Anesthesia: Culture, technology, and the rise of the surgeon

    Suzanne RagaNew Jersey, USA The introduction of new technologies such as surgical anesthesia has led to better methods of diagnosis and treatment, but it also shows that the relationship between medical theory and practice is not always a smooth one. Surprisingly, anesthesia was first used for non-medical purposes, indicating that in medicine theory does not…

  • The Florentine Renaissance apothecary

    Susan Brunn PuettChapel Hill, NC, USAJ. David PuettAthens, GA / Chapel Hill, NC The contemporary pharmacy conjures an image of a store replete with medicines, medical paraphernalia, and at least one professionally trained pharmacist to offer advice and fill medical prescriptions. Earlier European pharmacies (apothecaries), beginning in the Middle Ages and continuing through the Renaissance…

  • Arthur Wohlmann and the Rotorua Health Spa

    Stewart CameronHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Dr. Arthur Stanley Wohlmann played a pivotal role in the history of New Zealand despite his great project being a calamity. Even his discipline lost stature, yet Wohlmann himself retains a positive reputation in history. In the late 1800s, the British colony of New Zealand was promoting tourism as it…