Category: History Essays
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Sea sick: Naval surgery and sanitation in eighteenth-century Britain
Melissa YeoOntario, Canada Scurvy, yellow fever, and typhus were considered “the three Great Killers of seamen.”1 Hygiene and diet were very poor aboard eighteenth-century sailing vessels, as ships were often overstocked with men to account for ensuing losses while at sea.2 The sanitation on board these ships was considered as bad or worse than the slums…
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Hadrian and Frank’s sign
Vittoria SabatiniFlorence, Italy It is difficult to remain an emperor in the presence of a physician, and difficult even to keep one’s essential quality as man. The professional eye saw in me only a mass of humors, a sorry mixture of blood and lymph. This morning it occurred to me for the first time that…
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George Redmayne Murray and “myxœdema”
JMS PearceHull, England The transformation from myxedema to normal health is one of the most satisfying experiences for patient and physician that medicine has to offer. Yet until the end of the nineteenth century, the function of the thyroid gland was unknown. In the wake of Claude Bernard’s (1813–1878) term “internal secretion” in 1855 and…
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Jean-Françoise Champollion—Revisiting his illnesses and death
Maureen HirthlerRichard HutchisonBradenton, Florida “I’ve found it!” In 1822, Jean-Françoise Champollion (December 23, 1790 – March 4, 1832) told his brother he had a breakthrough in deciphering the Rosetta Stone, then collapsed to the floor. He had been ill for most of his life with various complaints—fainting and collapse, cough, chest pain, shortness of breath,…
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A historical review of Crohn’s disease
Anagha BrahmajosyulaBangalore, Karnataka, India Crohn’s disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, may cause inflammation in any part of the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the anus, with a predilection for the ileum. While much is known today about the underlying pathology of the disease, historically, this condition was thought to be a form…
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The decisive influence of malaria on the outcome of Grant’s Vicksburg campaign of 1863
Lloyd KleinEric WittenbergCalifornia, San Francisco, United States The vital importance of controlling the Mississippi River was apparent to Union strategists from the beginning of the Civil War. The river served as a major supply route, facilitated the transportation of men and military supplies, and abetted communication. Union control of the river would deprive the Confederacy…
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Body language: The history of medical terminology
Eve ElliotDublin, Ireland “We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.“—James D. Nicoll As any student of life sciences will tell you, medical terminology can feel like a foreign language. Fossae and foramina, erythropoietin and encephalomalacia, atelectasis and…
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Clinical signs in images of King Henry VII
Stephen MartinDurham, United Kingdom Westminster Abbey has a superb effigy that was made for the funeral of King Henry VII. (Fig 1) Henry, born in 1457 and deceased in 1509, was famous for defeating Richard III in the Wars of the Roses. The effigy has such breathtaking detail that it was probably made from a…
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Clausewitz’s death: Cholera and melancholy
Nicolas Roberto RoblesBadajoz, Spain “Sollte mich ein früher Tod in dieser Arbeit unterbrechen”(“If an early death should terminate my work”)— Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780–1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the psychological and political aspects of waging war. He is remembered chiefly for his work…