February, 2021 - Hektoen International

Lucid interval

February 16, 2021

Emma Manuel Eshwar Rajesh Chennai, India Clutches of Cannabis. Photo by Marlon Lara on Unsplash Even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people like me were silently grateful for the opportunity to spend some time with their family. Born as a single child whose parents got frequent transfers, I had lived with […]

One chaplain’s journey: teaching, hospice, and humanities

February 16, 2021

Terry McIntyre Forest Park, Illinois, United States Photo by Ave Calvar on Unsplash Auburn University was an easy choice for a graduate student with two preschool youngsters. Teaching medieval literature was the draw. Later, a divorce necessitated working as a project manager in sub-contracting. When the Lutheran campus pastor in Ann Arbor wanted me […]

Omentum: much more than “policeman of the abdomen”

February 16, 2021

Ashok Singh Chicago, Illinois, United States Histology of activated omentum 3 days after placing a 5 cc slurry of inert polydextran particles of approx. 100 micron diameter (1 million particles) in the abdominal cavity of rats. Note the dramatic change in the size and quality of the omentum. While the native omentum is fatty […]

The men who defeated syphilis

February 16, 2021

German zoologist Fritz Schaudinn. Source Fritz Schaudinns, Verlag Leopold Voss, Hamburg und Leipzig 1911. Via Wikimedia. Beginnings The origins of syphilis have been subject to much debate. The disease has been claimed to be thousands of years old and originally to have evolved from yaws. Generally mistaken for leprosy and not recognized as a separate entity, […]

Book review: Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

February 10, 2021

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover of Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession by Gavin Francis. Gavin Francis is a Scottish doctor, author, and traveler who has worked in emergency medicine, family medicine, and as the resident doctor for the Antarctic survey, which resulted in a previous book. His wanderlust and way with words […]

Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815–1852)

February 8, 2021

JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. Charles Babbage. Engraving from 1871. Via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Source. It is undeniable that computer science and technology play an important part in medical investigation and research, and universally in the transmission of information. Everyone remembers Charles Babbage, (1791-1871) (Fig 1) inventor of […]

Fortunio Liceti (1577-1567)—Aristotelean teratologist

February 8, 2021

Fortunio Liceti’s mother was seven months pregnant when on a sea voyage to Rapallo (on the coast of Liguria) she went into labor—supposedly because of the motions of the ship. It has been said that her baby was so small that it fit into the palm of one hand. The father, a physician, placed it […]

Abram Belskie: sculptor of medical medallions

February 5, 2021

Enrique Chaves-Carballo Kansas City, Kansas, United States Abram Belskie at work (circa 1948). Personal collection, Belskie Family. Via Wikimedia. Abram Belskie was born in London on March 27, 1907. He studied painting and sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art and received a scholarship to further his studies in Europe. In 1929 he moved […]

No complaints, only symptoms

February 5, 2021

Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia Aerial view of Sydney Harbour. 2015. Photo by user Whiteghost.ink, via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0 “No complaints, only symptoms,” I told my cardiologist this year. How dare I complain? I am eighty-four. Thirty-two years have passed since my quintuple coronary artery bypass; eighteen years since a diagnosis, in one of […]

William Sands Cox—surgeon and founder of the Birmingham Medical School

February 4, 2021

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Drawing of William Sands Cox by T H Mcguire. 1854. Public domain. Via Wikimedia In the early nineteenth century Birmingham was the second largest city in England. It was an industrial powerhouse, known as the city of a thousand trades, but it did not have its own medical […]