Month: May 2022
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Egg rhapsody
Girl with a basket of eggs. Painting by Joachim Beuckelaer or his follower, early 17th century. National Museum in Warsaw via Wikimedia. Public domain. In 1490, the famous author and publisher William Caxton wrote of a merchant sailing to France. Stranded on the coast of Kent, he tried to buy some eggs from a…
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Medicine’s pandemonium of paradoxes
Fergus ShanahanDublin, Ireland “You live and breathe paradox and contradiction, but you can no moresee the beauty of them than the fish can see the beauty of the water.”– Michael Frayn (Bohr to Heisenberg), Copenhagen1 The language of medicine is loaded with misnomers, inaccuracies, and ambiguities, and is in need of reform.2 Paradoxes, on the…
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Long before Pearl Harbor, an entire hospital was sent to help England in World War II
Edward TaborBethesda, MD, United States Harvard University President James B. Conant had the idea of sending a fully staffed hospital to England to help the British in their war with Germany in 1939, more than two years before the US entered the war. It became a collaboration between Harvard University and the American Red Cross.…
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Marmite: Its place in medical history, Lucy Wills, and the discovery of folic acid
James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States On a recent visit to Botswana in southern Africa, the author was introduced to a food spread known as Marmite.* Apparently very popular in Africa, a distinctive jar of this condiment was present on the table at every meal. Our South African Apex Expedition guide, Liam Rainier, a consummate…
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Daumier’s doctors
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “Le médecin : Pourquoi, diable! mes malades s’en vont-ils donc tous?”. Caricature by Daumier. National Library of Medicine. No known copyright restrictions. “Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” – Reinhold Niebuhr Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) was a “fundamentally discontented” French social critic, painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He produced over…
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Villanelle
Jolene Won Chicago, Illinois, United States Photo by Sandy Torchon on Pexels. I did not know today would be your last – we see no end for those that we hold dear. If I had known I’d not have let it pass. The nurse who knows she can’t set down her tasks continues on,…
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Dr. Gerhard Domagk and prontosil: Dyeing beats dying
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”– Albert Einstein Dr. Gerhard Domagk (1895–1964) was a German pathologist and bacteriologist whose research led to a discovery that saved innumerable lives. He worked for the Bayer chemical company and was also a professor at the University of…
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Robert James Graves MD FRS
JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom He fed fevers Robert Graves Fig 1. Clinical Lectures on the Practice of Medicine In Paris in 1828 there was a remarkable epidemic of acute sensori-motor polyneuropathy known as épidémie de Paris. Described by Auguste-Francois Chomel, the cause was a mystery.1 As a neurologist, my interest in…