Category: Vignettes at Large
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The ordeal of Mary Ann Bevan
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “May you be the proof that man can endure anything.” – Yiddish curse“Beauty vanishes; virtue is lasting.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe From the 1840s through the 1940s, “freak shows” were very popular in the western world, “a normal staple of American culture.”1 People were exhibited because of their appearances: “giants,” “dwarves,”…
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The tapeworm diet: Myth, mostly
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use…‘we.’”—Attributed to Mark Twain The tapeworm is a flatworm that can live in the human intestine. Humans acquire tapeworms by eating raw or uncooked flesh that contains tapeworm larvae or “cysts.” Raw or uncooked beef—in the form of “steak tartare,”…
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Haff disease: We don’t know all of it
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It was an unbelievably sad thing to watch. Strong men being carried from their fishing boats to their homes—completely stiff and utterly helpless.”– Witness to 1924 disease outbreak In the history of medicine there are examples of diseases “rising and falling.” They appear abruptly, sicken or kill people for a period of…
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A tale of two cities
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel I wish that when I visited the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland years ago, I had also seen the German island of Reichenau and the Swiss village of Heiden 104 km to the south. Both are on Lake Constance, which the Germans call Bodensee and is situated at the point…
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Jaws and galeophobia
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Ignorance is the parent of fear.”– Herman Melville, Moby Dick The 1975 thriller film, Jaws, takes place in a New England summer resort town. People flock to the beach, and two swimmers are killed by sharks. A marine biologist brought in to help find the killer thinks the swimmers were killed by…
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Fixed schedules and no kissing: Child rearing according to Drs. Holt and Watson
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”– Benjamin Spock, MD Child rearing “experts” first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century. L. Emmett Holt, MD (1855–1924), graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1880. He decided to devote himself to pediatrics, which was not yet a…
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Of lice and men
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “By consistently tormenting them / with reminders of the lice in their children’s hair, the / School Physician first brought their hatred down on him / But by this familiarity they grew used to him, and, so / at last, they took him for their friend and adviser.”– “The Poor,” William Carlos…
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Doctors’ husbands
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.”– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The stereotypical image of the “medical couple” is changing: it is no longer the doctor-husband and his nonphysician-wife. This change is permanent and will accelerate, since 60% of American medical students1 and 54% of physicians2 are women. Eighty percent…
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Paruresis: “Shy bladder” syndrome
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Keep calm and carry on.”– British motivational poster, 1939 Paruresis is the fear of being unable to urinate without privacy. It is more than simple shyness or embarrassment, but is rather an “intermittent idiopathic form of urinary retention.”1 In severe cases, the individual can only urinate at home, alone. The term “paruresis”…