Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Month: August 2018

  • Karl A. Meyer (1888–1972)

    For over half a century, Dr. Karl Meyer was the absolute ruler of what under his command became the largest public hospital in the United States, the Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He interned there in 1908, joined its staff as attending surgeon in 1918, and at the age of 28 was appointed hospital superintendent.…

  • Robert M. Kark (1911–2002)

    In the 1950’s, Robert Kark and his team of Robert C. Muehrcke, Victor Pollak, and Conrad Pirani became, for a short time, the dominant force in American nephrology by popularizing the use of kidney biopsy as a diagnostic tool. This technique had first been described by Scandinavian investigators with somewhat limited success, but the Kark team…

  • Christian Fenger (1840–1902)

    Danish born Christian Fenger practiced pathology and surgery in Chicago over a century ago and made such an impact on education that a public school in his adopted city is still named after him. As a young man he studied medicine in Copenhagen, completed his internship there, served in the 1865 war against Germany, and…

  • William Stewart Halsted (1852–1920)

    One of the greatest early American surgeons and one of the “big four” founders of the John Hopkins Medical School faculty, William Halsted was a curious personality, a loner and egomaniac recluse, aristocrat in his breeding, touchy and sharp tongued, an advocate of precision who had little interest in private practice and spent his life…

  • Learning anatomy in medical school

    Peter H. BerczellerDordogne, France An excerpt from Dr. Peter Berczeller’s memoir, The Little White Coat. On the second day of medical school, we were invited to meet the cadaver we would be working on for the next six months. I trooped up with the rest of the class into a large unheated space on the…

  • Yes, I’m positive

    George W. Christopher Ada, Michigan, United States     Early tests for HIV were highly sensitive but often gave false-positive results. The Western blot introduced in 1987 still gave 10-20% indeterminate results. Newer tests have improved accuracy and accessibility. Image from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A quick glance at the afternoon clinic…

  • We mortals

    Daniel  Moran Webster, New Hampshire, United States   We long for the perfection in these things of the world, Life certain in its bilateral symmetry, Generations strung like pearls on an imagined wire. We squint at the sun. We marvel at the plaintive syllables of songbirds. We admire tallness and clarity. Feeling the vibrations of…

  • Life savings

    Daniel Moran Webster, New Hampshire, United States     Aging is the bank which accepts deposits, and will not ever give them back. But it does have its tiny catalogue of compensations. I recall those ancient days when opening that account might earn you a new toaster or blender, a set of steak knives.This week,…

  • Visitations

    Daniel Moran Webster, New Hampshire, United States   I love the world. When it does not encroach. When people do not knock at my door. I want to know what is happening. Out there between commercials. I want to worship. But I find nothing sacred. So I am contented with bottomless thinking. About the blossom…

  • Saul Farber on St. Helena

    Peter BerczellerDordogne, France I went to see Saul Farber in his new office in the spring of 2000. For some forty years he had been our chief, our role model, the long-term creative force behind the department of medicine and indeed the entire medical school, the man who personified the core values of our institution.…