January, 2023 - Hektoen International

Dear brainstem, you remind me of the Mona Lisa

January 31, 2023

Serena Yue Hong Kong, China Left: The Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci, between 1503 and 1506. Louvre Museum. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Right: Brainstem, ventral view. Designed by erico and edited by 小野浩雅(ONO, Hiromasa). © 2016 DBCLS TogoTV. CC-BY-4.0. Dear brainstem, You remind me of the Mona Lisa, seated firmly and comfortably atop […]

Christopher Wren’s contributions to medicine

January 31, 2023

JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. Left: Sir Christopher Wren. From James Bissett’s Magnificent Guide, 1808. Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia. Public domain. Right: Blue plaque at Hampton Court Green. Photo by Edwardx on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. An extraordinary natural philosopher and Renaissance man, Christopher Wren (1632–1723) (Fig 1) was primarily an astronomer and […]

Learning the vocabulary of medicine (and other foreign languages)

January 31, 2023

Edward Tabor Bethesda, Maryland, United States Some of the sources of medical vocabulary. Photo by author. Both of my parents were physicians, and their discussions were often medical. One weekend when I was about four years old, I listened to one such conversation at lunch and interrupted to ask, “When I grow up, will […]

On orchids and testes

January 31, 2023

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Orchis anthropophora (L.) All. (originally labeled Aceras anthropophorum (L.) R.Br.). From Album des Orchidées d’Europe by Henry Correvon, 1923. Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz. Botanical Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland. “You like orchids?…Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, their perfume the […]

Whitlock Nicholl: Physician and theological writer

January 31, 2023

Avi Ohry Tel Aviv, Israel Whitlock Nicholl. c. 1821. In Faraday Consults the Scholars: The Origins of the Terms of Electrochemistry by S. Ross. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. In November 1839, Dr. John Clendinning delivered at the St. Marylebone Infirmary a lecture on the examination of the sick, the principal sources of fallacy attending […]

Two giants in thoracic surgery: Clarence Crafoord and Åke Senning

January 30, 2023

Göran Wettrell Lund University, Sweden Figure 1. Senning (left), Elmquist, and Crafoord (right) with an external pacemaker, Stockholm, Sweden. Photo courtesy of Marko Turina on Wikimedia (“Senning, Elmqvist & Crafoord 1954”). CC BY 3.0. Clarence Crafoord Clarence Crafoord (1899–1984) was one of the most outstanding surgeons in Sweden during the twentieth century (Figure 1). […]

Not just for the sake of ourselves

January 25, 2023

Florence Gelo Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney, 1806, Benjamin West, Woodmere Art Museum, Bequest of Charles Knox Smith The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney is a painting that I have used often to teach close looking to medical and theological students. The painting is full of details: […]

Comments on Dr. James Franklin’s article on George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War

January 25, 2023

Stuart Poticha Chicago, Illinois, United States In 1966 as a young surgeon who had just completed his residency, I was drafted into the United States Army. Following basic training at Fort Sam Houston, I was sent to Vietnam, where I became the Chief of Surgery of the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi. The […]

The three knights of thyrotoxicosis

January 25, 2023

Of the three physicians who described thyrotoxicosis, Karl Adolph von Basedow is the least known, especially in the English-speaking world. Born at Dessau in 1799, Basedow studied medicine at Halle University, worked as a physician in various cities of Germany, and in 1835 was appointed Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine at the University […]

Jean Astruc, the “compleat physician”

January 23, 2023

Jean Astruc. Line engraving by Duflos le jeune after L. Vigée and Touzé. Wellcome Collection. Public domain. Jean Astruc was born in 1684 in Sauve, France and studied medicine at Montpellier, graduating in 1703. He then became professor of medicine in Toulouse (1710) and Montpellier (1716), superintendent of the local mineral waters (1721), physician to […]