Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Month: August 2022

  • Lumbar puncture

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. Dominici Cotugno’s De Ischiade Nervosa, 1764. 1770. Access to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in life as an aid to diagnosis proved impossible until lumbar puncture. Galen of Pergamon (AD 130–200) failed to recognize CSF; he described a vaporous, not aqueous, humor that he called περιττώματα (residues) in the cerebral ventricles.…

  • Jane Eyre and tuberculosis

    Afsheen Zafar Rawalpindi, Pakistan   I had just put down my pen after the last patient left the room. She somehow reminded me of the Brontë sisters. She had been diagnosed with tuberculous axillary lymphadenitis after a biopsy but otherwise seemed to be in perfect health. Apparently she was not much disturbed by the diagnosis…

  • Dr. Alice Miller on Hitler’s childhood

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   “All it took was a Führer’s madness and several million well-raised Germans to extinguish the lives of countless millions of innocent human beings in the space of a few short years.” – Alice Miller, Ph.D.   Jewish women and children removed from a bunker. From the Stroop Report, a report…

  • Out of the mouths of moms

    Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States   For family physicians, even a routine well-baby check-up can be a heart-warming experience. Not only do we hear about the infant’s progress and catch up on things at home, but we also savor the unguarded moments such as those I tried to capture in these sketches. Click on…

  • The surgeon’s photograph of the Loch Ness monster

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Whatever is the truth, there is no denying that Nessie will continue to intrigue the world for years to come.”– Johnathan Bright, Oxford Internet Institute Loch Ness, at thirty-seven kilometers long and 230 meters deep at its deepest point, is the second largest lake in Scotland.1 Stories about a creature of great…

  • Ben Hecht and the “Miracle of the Fifteen Murderers”

    James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States   “Miracle of the Fifteen Murderers: The X Club holds a post-mortem“ by Ben Hecht. Collier’s Weekly, January 16, 1943, pp. 11–12, via The Unz Review. Fair use. The January 16, 1943 issue of Collier’s Weekly featured a short story by the famous and multifaceted author Ben Hecht…

  • Book review: The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Facsimile of a wax teaching model made by Sergeant Thomas H. Kelsey for the New Zealand Medical Corps facial and jaw injury unit, c. 1917. British National Army Museum Copyright, released under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. “A chirurgien should have…the harte of a lyin…the eyes of a hawke…[and] the hands…

  • Jorge Luis Borges: Brilliant blindness

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Penumbra de la paloma llamaron los hebreos a la iniciación de la tarde cuando la sombra no entorpece los pasos y la venida de la noche se advierte como una música esperada y antigua, como un grato declive. Twilight of the dove the Hebrews called the initiation of the…

  • Book review: Ethel Gordon Fenwick: Nursing Reformer and the First Registered Nurse

    Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom   Book cover of Ethel Gordon Fenwick: Nursing Reformer and the First Registered Nurse by Jenny Main. With the exception of Florence Nightingale and more recently of Mary Seacole, relatively few biographies have been written about pioneering nurses. Yet there have been many others who made great contributions to…

  • Diagnosing Mona Lisa

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Mona Lisa looks as if she has just been sick, or is about to be.”– Noel Coward Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a many-talented genius of the Italian Renaissance. He was a painter, anatomist, engineer, and inventor. One of his best known paintings, a portrait of a noblewoman, is called the Mona…