Search results for: “cheap”
-
The tenuous gut-brain axis and its role in schizophrenia
When the son of the American surgeon Bayard Holmes developed schizophrenia, Holmes devoted his life to researching the disease. In 1916, impressed by the new germ theory that stated many diseases were caused by an overgrowth of bacteria, he tried to cure his son by opening his abdomen and going through the appendix to wash… Read more
-
Onions: Soup, medicine, and crocodile tears
What should well-educated persons be expected to know about onions? They have probably eaten them since childhood, or perhaps had to help their mothers in the kitchen and shed crocodile tears even though they did not feel particularly sad. If chemically inclined they might have wondered what ingredient was responsible for their tears. They may… Read more
-
Pope John XXI, the only physician to become pope
Pope John XXI was born in Lisbon between 1210 and 1220. His original name was Pedro Rebuli Julião and he was also referred to as Petrus Hispanus (Peter of Spain). He was the only Portuguese ever to be pope. Strictly speaking he should have been John XX, but because of an error number XX was… Read more
-
Renal reminiscences
Medical conferences are an opportunity to travel and to meet. During the early days when renal transplantation, dialysis, and biopsy revolutionized nephrology, I had the opportunity to meet many members of the new discipline. I once listened to Jean Hamburger lecture about kidney transplants. I heard Robert Schrier lecture on salt and water. One summer… Read more
-
Dr. William Hall and rickets
JMS PearceHull, England Today, few Western doctors have seen children suffering from rickets, an extremely common crippling scourge of children recorded since the second century AD. Whistler, Boot, and Glisson in the seventeenth century described the clinical features. Its cause was a mystery. In a letter written around 1664, Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) describing rooks/crows,… Read more
-
David Macbride: On scurvy and the art of tanning
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel David Macbride (1726–1778) of the county of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was an Irish physician who contributed to the treatment of scurvy1 and to the art of tanning.2 In his youth, he was apprenticed to a local surgeon and served for a short time as a surgeon’s mate on a Navy hospital… Read more
-
Sporozoites: The elusive assassins
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Almost 5,000 years ago, the Chinese described a disease that presented with intermittent fevers, enlarged spleens, and a predilection to epidemics. Those malarial infections were possibly caused by Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) since P. malariae is unlikely to cause epidemics. The Chinese did not mention mortality following these symptoms; therefore,… Read more
-
The smell of dystopia: Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It’s a sad commentary on our age that we find Dystopias a lot easier to believe in than Utopias: Utopias we can only imagine, Dystopias we’ve already had.”– Margaret Atwood Brave New World1 is a science fiction novel about a high-tech, controlling dystopia. It is clearly a satire. Nineteen Eighty-Four2 is a… Read more
-
The financial affairs of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
After more than 200 years, the music of the great genius Mozart has remained unsurpassed and the interest in various aspects of his life continues unabated. Most medical authorities now believe that he died from Henoch-Schönlein nephritis with severe edema, hypertension, and neurological complications in the form of a stroke.1 There is perhaps less agreement… Read more