Month: April 2017
-
Alcohol and the art of David Teniers Jr.
Mirjana Stojkovic-IvkovicBelgrade, Serbia David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) was one of the most prolific and versatile Flemish artists. About 2000 pictures have been attributed to him, including replicas and copies, and at least 900 paintings have been accepted as his genuine work. In his lifetime he was respected as one of the greatest painters of…
-
Poetry in medicine
Debbie McCullisGreenwood Village, CO, USA Poetry is the most ancient of medicines. From the earliest physicians in Egypt to the bustling modern hospital’s wide range of health professionals, poetry has long been part of healing. From the chants and charms that the ancients considered cures for supernaturally caused diseases, through the Middle Ages as necessary…
-
The King’s-Evil and sensory experience in Richard Wiseman’s Severall Chirurgicall Treatises
Adam KomorowskiSang SongIreland Throughout many centuries, the monarchs of England maintained as royal prerogative the ability to heal the sick by virtue of their miraculous touch alone. William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143) first described the use of the thaumaturgic touch by King Edward the Confessor (1003-66), who healed a woman afflicted with scrofula.1,2,3 While this power…
-
Torsten Almén 1931-2016. Inventor of non-ionized contrast media.
Frank Wollheim Lund, Sweden There were no signs of genius to impress us in any of the medical students at Lund in the fall of 1950, and certainly not in Torsten Almen. He seemed rather ordinary, somewhat shy and stuttering; and it was a well kept secret that he was a good pianist and an accomplished…
-
Empathy for medical students
David JeffreyEdinburgh, United Kingdom On a windy corner of Drummond Street, not far from Rutherford’s pub in Edinburgh, there is a small bronze plaque with these words: “And when I remembered all that I hoped and feared as I pickled about Rutherford’s in the rain and the east wind; how I feared I should be…
-
Reflections on early 20th century tuberculosis: a juxtaposition of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Edward L. Trudeau’s Autobiography
Gregory RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States The early twentieth century was an auspicious time for medicine. Physicians of the era would be the first to transform the mysterious “captain of all these men of death” into a living, “breathing” bacillus named Mycobacterium tuberculosis.1 As a corollary of the fundamental discovery, diagnostic and therapeutic innovations began in…
-
Listening to the patient
Marina MaffoniFrancesca DionigiPavia, Italy Alex was a smart thirty-nine year old man with drug-resistant lymphoma. In four years he had undergone two unsuccessful bone marrow transplants. That is all my senior psychologist tutor and I were told by the referring clinician, except that the patient himself had asked for psychological support. So we went to…
-
PEACH: Providing end of life care for the homeless
Lea MendesLisbon, Portugal Homeless people make up a Fourth World population in industrialized as well as developing countries. Homelessness creates a higher risk for disease and premature death. An innovative Canadian program provides care for those who are homeless at the end of life, especially for those who might otherwise die alone. PEACH (Palliative Education…
-
On being disabled
Yeji LeeToronto, Canada In the past the disabled have often been isolated from the rest of society by structural, physical, and emotional means, considered irrelevant or even detrimental to the development and function of the larger majority. The lame could not physically work; the deaf and mute could not communicate with others; the blind could…