Category: History Essays
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Cranium: The symbolic powers of the skull
F. Gonzalez-CrussiChicago, Illinois, USA Of all bodily parts, the head has traditionally enjoyed the greatest prestige. The Platonic Timaeus tells us that secondary gods (themselves created by the Demiurge) copied the round form of the universe to make the head, divinest part of our anatomy. In order to avoid its rolling on the ground like…
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“Some little show of nail”: The health of Anne Boleyn
Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States Of all the wives of England’s King Henry VIII, the most well known is Anne Boleyn. She is the woman who, one way or another, caused the split between Henry and Catherine of Aragon – and the split between England and the Catholic Church. She has been declared a martyr,…
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A 130-year-old medical cold case: Who was Jack the Ripper?
Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, USA As murder followed murder and mutilated bodies were discovered and described in the press, one can imagine the fear that swept the hardscrabble Whitechapel section of London in 1888. Populated with many immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe and Russia, unemployment was rampant and tenements were found on most streets. It…
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“Surrounded with many Mercies”: 270 years of patient advice
Andrew WilliamsFrederick O’DellNorthampton, United Kingdom On July 9, 1748 Dr. James Stonhouse, physician at the Northampton Infirmary (United Kingdom), published “A Friendly Letter to a Patient just admitted to an Infirmary.”1 Later that year, after some minor revisions, the text was reprinted as “Friendly Advice to a Patient,” which for the next century and beyond…
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Revisiting the history of kuru
Tanzila SaiyedChernivtsi, Ukraine An eleven year old girl named Kigea had gradually become unsteady on her feet. She had pain in her arms, joints, and legs, and would cry and scream. She had fits of uncontrollable laughter and shaking. She belonged to the tribe of Fore (pronounced as FOR-AY) of the village called Waisa in…
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Samuel Clossy’s Observations: An unrecognized contribution to the origin of anatomical pathology
Guillermo QuinonezAncaster, ON, CanadaLaurette GeldenhuysHalifax, NS, Canada It is often stated in the medical history literature that Anatomical Pathology was established as a modern science in 1761 when Giovanni Battista Morgagni published Site and Causes of Disease (Figure 1) in Italy.1,2 However, the development of the discipline was likely more complex, occurring somewhat concurrently in…
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Leaving nothing to the imagination: Casualties Union and post-war first aid training
Jessica DouthwaiteLondon, UK In 1940, a new method for training the emergency services in casualty rescue emerged from the demands of the Second World War.1 Until then, rescue training was perfunctory —neither concerned with recreating representative conditions for trainees, nor taking account of the quality of victims’ experiences. Due to the exigencies of the war,…