Month: July 2022
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Spinach: The great myth
Even now, many people believe that spinach is an excellent source of iron and that Popeye the Sailor Man had superhuman strength because he feasted on it. Smart though uneducated, he was supposed to know how to solve difficult problems, and although he did not smoke tobacco, he ate spinach through his pipe. He would…
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Marmite versus Vegemite
James FranklinGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States Marmite and Vegemite are similar but not quite the same. Both are classified as spreads and are typically spread with a knife on bread or crackers. They may be regarded as cousins and are both derived from yeast. Marmite, though discovered by a German, is a product of the…
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The beginnings of cell theory: Schleiden, Schwann, and Virchow
JMS PearceHull, England Every schoolchild is taught in biology about cells and their elemental importance. Students of biological and medical sciences also learn about the Schwann cell sheath that invests nerve fibers. What is less well known is how these two are related. Schwann, a physician by training, and Schleiden, a botanist from Hamburg, were…
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Reading Lacan 1 – Reading Lacan 2 – Identification with the Aggressor
Sean MurphyChicago, Illinois, United States Created after reading the work of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, Reading Lacan 1 (top) and Reading Lacan 2 (bottom left) capture the abstract nature of his baroque speaking and writing styles. At the same time, they maintain through a bright color palette one goal of psychoanalysis: cure—and with it, hope.…
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Dr. Désiré-Magloire Bourneville: a man ahead of his time
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale.”– Rudolf Virchow, M.D. Désiré-Magloire Bourneville, M.D. (1840–1909), was born into a family of modest means. He earned his medical degree in 1865 in Paris. He is known today, if he is remembered at all, as the…
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Asparagus in history and medicine
In Germany, in the spring, everyone goes wild about asparagus. It is on the menu in all restaurants—asparagus with steak, with ham, or with schnitzel. Its delicious stalks are white if grown in the shade, green from chlorophyll if grown in sunlight. Asparagus is also eaten outside Germany, but perhaps not quite with the same…
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America’s first bronchoscopist
J. Gordon FriersonPalo Alto, California, United States One day, in the tough coal-mining city of Pittsburgh of the early 1900s, two Sisters of Mercy brought an emaciated, severely dehydrated, seven-year-old girl to a doctor’s office. Sometime earlier the girl had swallowed lye, thinking it was sugar, and the ensuing inflammation and scarring had all but…
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William Blake
JMS PearceHull, England William Blake (1757–1827) (Fig 1) was and still is an enigma. He was born on November 28, 1757, one of seven children to James, a hosier, and Catherine Wright Blake at 28 Broad Street in London.1 He once remarked: “Thank God I never was sent to school / To be Flogd into…
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Scar
Michael Loyd GrayKalamazoo, Michigan Alice ran a finger along the scar on his arm and he slowly woke up, his eyes focusing in the dark. She had been watching him sleep. He rolled over to face her. “Can’t you sleep?” she said. “I had a bad dream.” She ran her finger along the scar again.…
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The grieving one: On the death of a spouse
Paul RousseauCharleston, South Carolina, United States “A real experience of death isolates one absolutely. The bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.”– Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, 1971 “Alone” holds the word “one.” After the death of a spouse, we are al(one). ____ One pillow on the bed. One imprint on the sheet. One towel in…