Month: October 2018
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On the banks of the Ganges
Susan BeckFort Collins, Colorado, United States She told me how her brother diedin a screaming instant of metal and splintering windshield.She told me in the silence of the exam room,my brain let goof Latin names, syndromes,the architecture of molecules,which way sodium, and potassiumflow across the ghostly cell membrane. Prayers meant for the ears of gods…
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A physician examining a patient’s urine
This painting from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford shows a physician uroscopist examining a specimen of urine in order to determine what was ailing his patient. It is a serious painting, unlike that of Dutch artists such as Jan Steen who regarded uroscopists as quacks and made fun of their pretentious mien and attire. The…
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Edvard Munch: sickness and death
These two paintings by the famous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) reflect his lifelong melancholia and obsession with sickness and death. This has been attributed to his childhood experiences of his father’s drifting towards insanity, his mother’s death from tuberculosis, and the later death of two siblings from the same disease. Melancholia affected the artist…
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Los Caprichos
This is engraving number 40 from the Los Caprichos series by Francisco de Goya, published in 1799 and showing a donkey as a doctor attending a dying man in his bed. The doctor wears a watch to count the patient’s pulse but not a stethoscope because this had not yet been invented. It suggests that the…
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The Agnew Clinic
The Agnew Clinic (or The Clinic of Dr. Agnew) is an oil painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. It was commissioned by the class of 1889 of the University of Pennsylvania medical students to honor the anatomist and surgeon David Hayes Agnew on his retirement from teaching. It depicts Dr. Agnew performing a partial mastectomy in a…
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Our recipes reflect our genetic makeup
Margit BurmeisterAnn Arbor, Michigan, United States Europeans eat cream, yogurt, and lots of cheese. Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine feature yogurt and a cheese called paneer, but recipes from East or Southeast Asia usually do not include dairy products. Traditional recipes, while being an important part of culture, also reflect the genetic make-up of a…