Wet nursing: a historical perspective
Mariella Scerri Mellieha, Malta A Russian wet nurse, c. 1913. Painted by Frederic de Haenen public domain via Wikimedia. Wet nursing, a form of breastfeeding provided by someone other than an infant’s biological mother,1 has a long and sometimes controversial history. Death in childbirth, a mother’s illness, as well as cultural habits and circumstance […]
Teddy Roosevelt: did a speech really save his life?
Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States Figure 1. Roosevelt’s Eyeglass Case. Photo by Rickster77. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 Figure 2. Roosevelt’s Speech With Bullet Hole. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Part Of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Via Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Figure 3. Roosevelt’s Bloody Shirt. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Part Of the […]
Another look at the medical problems of Jean-Paul Marat: searching for a unitary diagnosis
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden L’Assassinat de Marat / Charlotte Corday. Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry. 1860. Musée d’Arts de Nantes. Via Wikimedia. Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was a practicing physician, scientist, and a leader of the French Revolution. He also suffered from a chronic, intractable skin condition, which troubled the last five years of his life. A tormenting […]
Samuel Mudd MD: Good Samaritan or conspirator?
Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States Figure 1 Samuel A. Mudd, MD. Wikimedia. As he rose in the Washington, D.C. courtroom on June 30, 1865, to hear his verdict, Dr. Samuel Mudd looked older than his thirty-one years (Figure 1). His odobene mustache framed his mouth and his goatee was speckled with prematurely […]
The Philosophers’ Stone: history and myth
S.E.S. Medina Benbrook, Texas, United States The ouroboros and the squared circle. The ouroboros is an ancient symbol where the metaphysical property of infinity is represented by a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail. Its image is often used in alchemical texts from the Middle-Ages. Contained within the ouroboros is the squared circle, an […]
Plague epidemics and the evolution of language in England
Andrew P. K. Wodrich Washington, DC, United States Pierart dou Tielt’s illustration depicts the mortal toll of the Black Death in a Belgian town circa 1353. Similarly, the plague decimated the population of England, spurring the change from French to English as the country’s dominant spoken language. Via Wikimedia Commons here. Epidemics have had a profound impact […]
The death of Zachary Taylor: the first presidential assassination or a bad bowl of cherries?
Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States Figure 1: Senator Foote pulling a revolver on Senator Benton on Senate Floor. The quote above Benson’s head reads, “Get out of the way and let the assassin fire! Let the scoundrel use his weapon! I have no arm’s(sic) I didn’t come here to assassinate.” Library of […]
Women in the medical profession: the trial of Jacoba Felicie de Almania
Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States A meeting of doctors at the university of Paris. From the “Chants royaux” manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. BNF, Français 1537, fol. 27v. Source In November 1322 a group of folk healers and empirics were put on trial by the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Paris. Their […]
Two great Scots: John and William Hunter
B. Herold Griffith Chicago, Illinois, United States Excerpted from a presentation at the meeting of the Society of Medical History of Chicago October 3, 2006 Portrait of William Hunter. Credit: Hunterian Society loan to the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Of the many surgeons who have had ties to Glasgow over […]
The search for Eisenhower’s adrenal tumor
Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States Figure 1. Letter to KRL from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology For most Americans, the knowledge of Dwight Eisenhower’s health history is limited to the fact that he had a serious heart attack while president. However, a seemingly casual comment by a non-physician political scientist, Robert […]