Month: December 2024
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A midnight call
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece We are halfway through Advent and looking forward to Christmas. As I am finishing some late-night computer work and seriously thinking about sleep, the cell phone goes off. I recognize the voice of a man I saw recently. His problem is trouble with breathing, that vital function whose perceived difficulty flashes warning…
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Paolo Sarpi: Venetian hero, Roman heretic
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Though an obscure figure today, for many years Fra Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623) loomed large in the ecclesiastical, scientific, and political arenas of Europe. Macaulay praised him as his “favorite modern historian,”1 Boswell called him a genius, and Samuel Johnson considered translating him to the English-speaking world. A venerable polymath, he…
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In memoriam: James Parkinson
JMS PearceHull, England The 21st of December 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Dr James Parkinson (1755–1824), author of An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. He was buried in St. Leonard’s church where a marble plaque elegantly summarising his life and work was unveiled in September 1955. Further reading JMS PEARCE is…
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Book review: X-ray
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England X-ray by Nicole Lobdell is the latest in the Bloomsbury Collection series “Object Lessons,” which examines the hidden and unexplored aspects of ordinary things that have become a part of modern life. X-rays have long been a source of fascination, not just to scientists and doctors for their medical uses, but…
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Aequanimitas
JMS PearceHull, England Amongst many books and essays devoted to the ideology and practice of medicine in its widest sense, William Osler’s Aequanimitas1 stands out as a classic. Influenced by Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici, published in 1686, Osler’s Aequanimitas with Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine was published in 1904.…