Month: March 2025
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The lives and artistry of the Pissarro dynasty
George WeiszSydney, Australia Reviewing the lives of famous people is mostly rewarding and only disappointing when it changes our views of admired idols. Apart from his painting, the so-called “dean” of the Impressionist art movement is of interest for several other reasons. What more can we say about Camille Pissarro than the books, stories, lectures,…
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Alain G. Cribier, MD, aortic stenosis, and TAVI
Daniel GelfmanIndianapolis, IN In 2024, the world of interventional cardiology lost one of its greatest innovators: Alain Cribier, MD (1945–2024). Called the father of “structural heart disease” treatment and described as “larger than life, he was a Renaissance man, fluent in English and French, knowledgeable in philosophy and art, but keen to be a physician…
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Don’t stop me now: The positive effects of music in post-stroke rehabilitation
Silvia MasciTerni, Italy Stroke is a clinical syndrome characterized by sudden onset of neurological deficit that persists for more than 24 hours or leads to death. Based on etiology, a distinction is made between ischemic stroke (65–90%) and hemorrhagic stroke (intracerebral hemorrhages 10–25%, subarachnoid hemorrhages 0.5–5%).1,2 According to 2019 World Stroke Organization (WSO) statistics, stroke…
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William Heberden
JMS PearceHull, England Virtuous and faithful HEBERDEN, whose skillAttempts no task it cannot well fulfil,Gives Melancholy up to nature’s care,And sends the patient into purer air.—William Cowper in his poem “Retirement” It is difficult to avoid eulogies of the outstanding humane compassion and clinical accomplishments, which are the hallmarks of William Heberden the elder (1710–1801).…
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Tattoo stories
Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States A century before reality TV, there were circus sideshows, and one of the star attractions was the tattooed lady. Betty Broadbent was the most famous. The 1939 song “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” written by Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen and performed by Groucho Marx in At the Circus, was a…
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Book review: Frames of Minds: A History of Neuropsychiatry on Screen
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In this fascinating book, author Eelco Wijdicks traces the history of psychiatry and neuropsychiatry in cinema. From the beginnings of commercial film in Paris in 1895, directors and screenwriters have told medical stories, both as entertainment and as a medium for understanding various aspects of the human condition. Frames of Minds…
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The truth about the Mad Hatter
Stephen McWilliamsDublin, Ireland Few works of fiction are as original as Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Replete with singular characters such as the White Rabbit, the King and Queen of Hearts, the March Hare, the somnolent Dormouse, and the infamous grinning Cheshire Cat, the novel also boasts one of the true icons of…
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Morphine in the life and works of Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol (1861–1931)
Vicent RodillaValencia, Spain Morphine was discovered by the German pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner, who in 1804 isolated it from opium and named it “morphium” after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. He noted that high doses could lead to psychiatric effects and that the pain relief provided by this compound was ten times more potent…
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Headlessness and sensibility
Frank Gonzalez-CrussiChicago, Illinois, United States April 15, 2019, was an ill-starred day. Parisians watched with horror as huge flames broke through the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in a conflagration that threatened to reduce that precious jewel of gothic architecture to a heap of smoking rubble. A terrifying spectacle, indeed! The famed gargoyles must have…
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Women in medicine
Women have long faced discrimination, prejudice, and exclusion from formal medical training, despite having served as healers and midwives since antiquity. In ancient Egypt, Merit Ptah was recognized as the first known woman physician in about 2700 BCE. In Greece, owing to societal restrictions, women like Agnodice practiced medicine clandestinely, eventually leading to legal reforms…