Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: Moments in History

  • William Pitt: Father and son

    Two great political figures, William Pitt the Elder (later to become Lord Chatham) and William Pitt the Younger, shaped the destinies of Great Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century. The father was the main architect of England’s victory in the Seven Years War (in America the French-Indian War). The son became the youngest…

  • The Emperor Maximilian II and his physicians

    Maximilian II (1527–1576) of the House of Habsburg was Holy Roman Emperor as well as king of Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary. The Emperor . . . had long suffered from gout, from heart attacks, from bouts of “kidney colic,” [and] quite possibly syphilis, that had been sweeping across Europe since the turn of the 16th century.…

  • King Henry VIII: More ailments than wives

    The younger sons of medieval kings would generally be doomed to live out their lives in relative obscurity unless raised to the crown by courtesy of the plague, smallpox, or pneumonia. Such was the case of Henry VIII, remembered among other achievements for his seven wives but also by his many bodily illnesses. He became…

  • The mystical prophet and his Bride of Christ

    Hansjörg RotheAustria and Klinikum Coburg, Germany In 1648, the year when the exhausted European powers at last ended the Thirty Years’ War, the Orthodox Ukrainian peasants rose against their Catholic Polish overlords and the Cossacks staged murderous pogroms and killed a large number of the local Jews, who were often tax collectors and administrators on…

  • Mingling medicine and medals

    Ira RezakStony Brook, New York, United States When I was nine or ten, my grandfather gave me a Dutch two and a half guilder, which looked like a dollar but which I soon found out could not be spent in Brooklyn. After frustration came curiosity about the strange language, coat of arms, and denomination that…

  • Meeting of minds: When scientists and artists meet

    James MathewMilwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Away from the glitter and noise of the Toronto International Film Festival, two men met for dinner on the thirty-eighth floor of the Westin Harbor Palace. They dined on vegetables and seafood while enjoying a spectacular view of Lake Ontario, its gentle ripples sparkling with the colors of the setting…

  • The arsenic eaters of Styria

    John ParascandolaMaryland, United States In 1851, the medical world learned of the curious practice of arsenic eating among peasants in Styria (now a region of Austria) through an article in a Viennese medical journal by Swiss physician, naturalist, and traveler Johann Jakob von Tschudi. The stimulus for this paper was a trial involving a poisoning…

  • Doctor Riker’s decision

    Julie GianakonPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States On the frigid Christmas night of 1776, Dr. John Riker was alarmed by the baying of dogs outside his New Jersey home. He went out into the darkness and discovered that the cause of the commotion was a regiment of armed men. Assuming they belonged to the British army, he angrily ordered…

  • Masters, Lindstrom, and decanal adventures

    Marshall A. LichtmanRochester, New York, USA One of the responsibilities of the dean is to foster the relationship of alumni with the school. This effort can lead to enhanced financial support, but it can also bind accomplished graduates, who may or may not think fondly of their alma mater, to the school and its programs.…

  • The incubator

    MAS AhmedNatasja VandepitteLondon The incubator is a common sight in every Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Its history is of interest because of its influence on patient care and on the ensuing societal change. Babies were an exclusively female domain, and it was up to the mothers to take care of their newborns, including those…