December, 2020 - Hektoen International

Pink and yellow

December 31, 2020

Govind Krishnan Durham, North Carolina, United States The Magpie by Claude Monet. 1868 – 1869. Musée d’Orsay. Via Wikimedia I am wearing pink, I have a rosy glow My breaths are even, measured, slow The doctors come and go. Come and go. Come and go. But sometimes they mutter, their heads bowed low. And […]

Doubled edged shield

December 30, 2020

Adil Menon Cleveland, Ohio, United States Jeryl Lynn Hilleman with her sister, Kirsten, in 1966 as a doctor gave her the mumps vaccine developed by their father. Unknown Photographer, distributed by Merck Sharp & Dohme. ca 1966. Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of American History Working my way through a biography of pioneering vaccine developer […]

Presentism

December 30, 2020

Jayant Radhakrishnan Chicago, Illinois, United States “Elihu Yale; William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire; Lord James Cavendish; Mr. Tunstal; and an Enslaved Servant” Previously hung at Woodbridge Hall of Yale University. Now at the Yale center for British Art. Yale Center for British Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Oxford English Dictionary […]

The deer trail

December 30, 2020

Henri Colt Laguna Beach, California, United States Photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash “Ezra, get up! It’s a beautiful morning, and you’re sixteen today!” I playfully shook my son’s shoulder. “It’s six o’clock, Dad, what are you doing?” He buried his head under his pillow and slid under the covers. “We’re going hiking, remember?” […]

Derek Ernest Denny-Brown

December 30, 2020

JMS Pearce Hull, England Figure 1: Image in the public domain. Credit: The National Library of Medicine. Source Amongst the titans of medicine, it is not easy to pick out those whose footprints will not fade with passing time. Derek Denny-Brown (Fig 1) was one. He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. After his […]

Too many doctors: the death of Friedrich III

December 30, 2020

Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. Kaiser Friedrich Museum (currently Bode Museum) on the Monbijou Bridge in Berlin, 1905. Public domain. Via Wikimedia Un médico cura; dos, dudan; tres, muerte segura. One doctor, health; two, doubt; three, certain death. -Spanish saying. Friedrich III of Hohenzollern was the second Kaiser of Germany and […]

The Sorokdo National Hospital of South Korea

December 30, 2020

Lucy Eum New Brunswick, Canada The wooden operating table used for vasectomies and sterilizations. Photo by Lucy Eum. 2012. Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy, has historically been a highly stigmatized condition.1 For centuries it was thought to be a curse, a punishment for sin, or a hereditary disease.2 It was not until 1873 […]

Dr. Sabina Spielrein: consequences of feminism and love

December 29, 2020

Irving Rosen Toronto, Ontario, Canada Sabina Spielrein (1885-1942) as a young woman. She had a hectic existence and can be considered an early contributor to the psychoanalytic literature. Image via Wikimedia While all our lives are eventful, some people tend to experience situations that set them apart. Born in 1885 in Rostov, Czarist Russia, […]

Anatomical descriptions in the Iliad

December 29, 2020

Maria Chicco Aylesbury, UK Illustration on the interior of a Greek kylix, Achilles dressing the wounds of Patroclus. Attic red figure, Vulci, Italy, ca. 500 BCE, signed by the potter Sosias. Kylix – Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin F2278 (c. 500 BC). The descriptions of battles and duels in the Iliad confer an epic […]

Origin of yellow fever

December 22, 2020

Enrique Chaves-Carballo Kansas City, Kansas, United States Henry R. Carter (1852-1925), Public Health Service Assistant Surgeon General and yellow fever epidemiologist. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) The origin of yellow fever has been a controversial subject since the disease appeared in the New World. William C. Gorgas, who was responsible […]