Month: May 2026
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Peter the Great and his reforms
Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 and is remembered for his reforms that modernized the Russian state. Born in 1672, he became tsar at a young age, though he initially ruled jointly with his half-brother Ivan V under the regency of his sister Sophia. During his reign, he transformed Russia from a…
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Paul Janssen: Fentanyl innovator
Alan Jay SchwartzPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Fentanyl is a remarkably potent opioid analgesic, but unfortunately is easily abused. It was invented by Paul Janssen (1926–2003) a Belgian entrepreneurial physician and founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica.1,2 Paul was the son of Constant Janssen (1895–1970), whose entrepreneurial mission importing and marketing pharmaceuticals eventually eclipsed his physician general practice.…
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How reliving adolescence made me a better psychiatrist
Marta AbrantesLisbon, Portugal My own adolescence still dwells within me, a submerged tide that mostly ripples calmly, but at other times unleashes heavy storms. I remember what I lived through, or swear “never again” with a lingering shame, yet I cannot deny the marks that are indelibly engraved inside me. As a child and adolescent…
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The Count of Monte Cristo: Medical
Alexandre Dumas père was inspired to write The Count of Monte Cristo by the experiences of his father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, son of a minor French nobleman and an enslaved Caribbean woman. Thomas-Alexandre was the first black general in the French army and accompanied Napoleon on his campaign to Egypt. On his return, his ship was…
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The walking stick as a social marker in society
Mitchell BataviaNew York, New York, United States The walking stick, also referred to as a staff, crosier, shepherd’s crook, gadget cane, and cane, has fulfilled many roles over the centuries as a symbol for power,1-3 authority,2 weaponry,1,4 social status,1,4 faith,1,5 magic,1 smuggling,1 fashion,5 and physical support.6 Regardless of role, the stick has served as a social marker identifying…
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Colonial psychiatry and the pathologizing of the African mind in Kenya
Wanjiku DyerLos Angeles, California, United States In 1910, on the outskirts of Nairobi, the British colonial government converted a smallpox isolation center into what it called the Nairobi Lunatic Asylum.¹ By 1924, the facility had been renamed Mathari Mental Hospital. For the next four decades, it would serve as both a psychiatric institution and an…
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Segregated people, segregated blood
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Are they afraid they’ll all turn black?Is that why our blood they lack?”1—From a poem by high school student Geraldyne Ghess In 1941, US leaders suspected that the country would soon be in a war “against a German aggressor, obsessed with ethnic purity and the racial symbolism of blood.”2 Unfortunately, much American…
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Fanny Hesse: Mother of microbiology
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Her contribution to bacteriology makes her immortal.”1—Medical historians Arthur Hitchens and Morris Leikind “C’est un grand progrès!”2—Louis Pasteur Fanny Hesse (neé Angelina Fanny Eilshemius, 1850–1935) was born in New York City, the oldest of ten children in a family of Dutch origin. In 1874 she married German physician Walther Hesse (1846–1911) and…
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The nursing school in the Warsaw Ghetto
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Despite extreme hardship and abject terror, the nursing school in the Warsaw Ghetto continued to provide the highest level of nursing education possible.”1 The Warsaw Jewish Nursing School was established in 1923 as part of the Czyste (“clean” in Polish) Jewish Hospital. The school received support from the Warsaw city government and…
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The great uncertainty
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece It was one of those episodes that often appear in works of fiction: the unusual circumstance, the odd coincidence, the thunderbolt out of a clear sky; an event that upsets the usual order of things, injects suspense, and drives the story according to the author’s fancy. Only this was not fiction but…