Month: October 2025
-
Mental illness, conscience, and time in the fiction of Peter Swanson
Stephen McWilliams Dublin, Ireland In Peter Swanson’s fifth novel, Before She Knew Him, Hen and Lloyd move in next door to Mira and Matthew in West Dartford, Massachusetts. Hen soon suspects her new neighbor of murder, but has trouble convincing people because her own history of mental illness makes her an unreliable witness in the eyes…
-
The healing oil of Saint Walburga
Christopher DuffinLondon, England Born in what is now Devon around 710, Walburga (also spelled Walpurga) was educated at Wimborne Abbey in Dorset, eventually becoming a nun there. In the 740s she joined her brothers, Willibald and Wunibald, who responded to a call from their uncle, St. Boniface (680–755), to become part of the Anglo-Saxon evangelical…
-
Famous physicians from Geneva, Switzerland
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Geneva, Switzerland is associated with many famous physicians and scientists. Some have been memorialized in street names, buildings, and institutions. Michael Servetus (ca. 1511–1553), a physician and theologian who lived most of his life in France,1 fled to Geneva after being condemned by Catholic authorities in France for the publication of…
-
The practice of looking inward
Florence GeloPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States I am a medical humanities educator and museum docent. I use art images to teach clinical skills to family medicine residents. Images grab residents’ attention and simplify emotional learning by making it more engaging and accessible. A painting can transform the theoretical into vivid imagery. During a gallery tour at…
-
Early medicine in Australia
Eighteen years after James Cook landed in Australia in 1770, the First Fleet arrived, carrying convicts, marines, and physicians. The colony’s surgeons faced overwhelming challenges—starvation, malnutrition, and disease—in a climate much unlike Britain’s. Dr. John White, the principal surgeon, recorded in his journals the “fevers, fluxes, and scorbutic afflictions” that plagued both prisoners and guards.…
-
The early Medici in Florence
The history of the beautiful city of Florence dates to the early Middle Ages and is intertwined with that of the remarkable Medici family. Their very name suggests a medical origin, and legend has it that an early Medici was physician to Charlemagne. As early as the 1200s, Chiarissimo di Giambuono (de’ Medici) is reported…
-
Procession of honor
Nancy ChedidCambridge, Massachusetts, United States We all heard the alarm. Strident and jarring. As medical interns in our eighth month of training—our nerves primed, our blood already rising—we steeled ourselves for the announcement that must follow. Was it a cardiac arrest? An ambulance, rushing accident victims to the emergency room? A fire? No. The voice…
-
Isaac Disraeli: Curiosities of Literature and other publications
Benjamin Disraeli (1766–1848), the famous prime minister of England, described his father Isaac as a great disappointment to his parents. He was a “difficult and rather morose child … pale and pensive, with large dark brown eyes, and flowing hair…timid, susceptible, lost in reverie, fond of solitude, and seeking no better company than a book.”…
-
Survival of the happiest
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It has been said that the impact of whatever happens to us owes 10% to the fact itself and 90% to our own response. Consequently, our happiness—or lack of it—under any circumstances is largely in our hands. This is quite obvious in the field of health and disease, as the following story…
-
Sir Benjamin Brodie
JMS PearceHull, England Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783–1862) was born in Winterslow, near Salisbury. His father, Peter Bellinger Brodie, was the local rector. Having graduated from Worcester College, Oxford, he chose to educate Benjamin at home since he was unable to meet the fees of the public schools. Choosing medicine as his career, Benjamin ventured to…