Month: January 2018
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From bedside to bench and beyond: the legacy of Dr. Eric G.L. Bywaters
Joshua Niforatos Gregory Rutecki Cleveland, Ohio, United States E.G.L. Bywaters. University of British Columbia, Open Collections The historian John Lukacs, a contemporary of pioneering British physician Eric G. L. Bywaters (1910-2003), wrote in his book At the End of an Age that “the history of anything amounts to that thing itself.”1 Lukacs, influenced by physicists…
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My little old lady
Nestor Ramirez-Lopez Champaign, Illinois, United States Picture of a typical ambulatory street vendor with foldable box and a rolling carrier. Source: www.carlosmunera.com In Colombia, as in other third-world countries, it is common to see street vendors of many types of goods. On Sundays and holidays, they concentrate around cinemas, sports arenas, the bullfighting ring,…
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Narrative control and the monster within: empowering disability in Jane Eyre
Mary Vallo Glastonbury, Connecticut, United States “Jane Eyre on Page and Screen 14: The Veil.” Linnet Moss. The author of the article credits Monro Orr (1921) for the image. In chapter twenty-five of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane tells Rochester that the night before, “a form emerged from the closet” in her room and tried on…
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Why “nurse” Grace Poole is the greatest puzzle in Jane Eyre
Sarah WiseLondon, United Kingdom “My mind had been running on Grace Poole — that living enigma, that mystery of mysteries,” Jane Eyre admits to herself, one evening at Thornfield Hall. Charlotte Bronte’s readers’ minds also run on Grace Poole throughout the Thornfield chapters of the novel — from the first “mirthless” laugh that housekeeper Mrs.…
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The beauty of nature and the nature of beauty
Michael BaumLondon, England Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy? / There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: / We know her woof, her texture; she is given / In the dull catalogue of common things. / Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings / Conquer all mysteries by rule…
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Snakes and ladders
Shampa Sinha Sydney, Australia Life in the ICU is like a game of Snakes and Ladders. Illustration by Dr. Tirthankar Dutta “Can you tell me where you are, Mr. Pemberton?” I would ask the middle-aged man every morning as he was recovering from abdominal surgery. “Oh, I’m in New York,” he would answer with…
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Is it legal yet?
Sarah Bigham Frederick, Maryland, United States In Flux, 2015. Painting by Sarah Bigham When I first embarked on this trip, I did not want to take to the land of chronic pain, with diagnoses as my expanding luggage. I only thought I had not worked hard enough to find the right medical specialist to…
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Win or Lose
Ashley Austin Charlottesville, Virginia, United States It was my second month of trauma surgery and the deer-in-the-headlights look had not completely faded. I sat in the surgery resident lounge area finishing up some post-operative notes. The trauma pager and walkie-talkie weighed heavily on my hip. It was not the physical weight, but the weight…
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Daniel’s clock
Yong Gabriel Berlin, Germany In memory of Daniel Chong (1965-2001) A hydrocephalic skull, Richard Bright. Reports of medical cases selected with a view of illustrating the symptoms and cure of diseases by a reference to morbid anatomy (1827). Online source: Wellcome Collection My cousin Daniel was born in perhaps the most medically infelicitous era in…
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Dr. Currier McEwen
Maria Kinsella St. Louis, Minnesota, United States Iris, Modern Maturity Magazine, From the article “Love in Blooms,” by Eliot Tozer. Volume 32 Number 5. October-November 1989 Dr. Currier McEwen forgot about growing old. No invasion of senior moments were permitted to cross his mind. He was committed to his own intuitiveness and enjoyed the ride…