15th century - Hektoen International

Blood and hate: The anti-Semitic origin of the fabled first transfusion

January 10, 2023

Matthew Turner McChord, Washington, United States Massacre of Jews woodcut. 1493. From L. Golding, The Jewish Problem, Penguin, 1938. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Introduction It is a story often repeated in medical textbooks: in 1492, Innocent VIII lay dying. His physician attempted the first recorded blood transfusion, transfusing the blood of three children into […]

Clinical signs in images of King Henry VII

January 5, 2023

Stephen Martin Durham, United Kingdom Fig 1. Funeral effigy of King Henry VII. Copyright Dean and Chapter of Westminster. 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 […]

The wounds of Christ and Prometheus – two of a kind?

March 15, 2022

Julia van Rosmalen Thomas van Gulik Amsterdam, Netherlands Fig. 1. Peter Paul Rubens, Prometheus Bound, 1611-1612. The eagle has buried its claws into the face and leg of Prometheus and uses its beak to tear out part of his liver that it has extracted through the right side of his chest. In the lower […]

A detailed depiction of a “crime scene” circa 1455

February 15, 2022

Daniel Gelfman Indianapolis, Indiana, United States The use of forensic science to determine the etiology and manner of death has been attempted for millennia. Early autopsies involved inspection of the deceased individual and possibly an internal examination. The performance of autopsies has been greatly influenced by religious and political forces.1 There is a record […]

Guaiac and “the old Guaiacum test”

January 26, 2022

James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States Guaiacum officinale. Photo by Forest and Kim Starr. July 27, 2007. Via Wikimedia. CC BY 3.0. “The old Guaiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain.” — A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle, 1887 So declares Mr. Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel A Study […]

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)

January 26, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Fig 1. Statue of Copernicus, Warsaw, Poland. Photo by Arpan K. Banerjee. Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 Feb 1473 in the Prussian town of Torun, now part of Poland. He studied at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, and although his main subjects were mathematics and astronomy, he […]

Book review: Greco-Roman Medicine and What it Can Teach Us Today

December 16, 2021

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover: Greco-Roman medicine and what it can teach us today. The Republic of Rome was founded in the sixth century BC. In the third century BC, the western Roman Empire began to spread outside the borders of Italy. Roman rule came to Britain in AD 43 with the […]

Guadalupe: One of Spain’s oldest schools of medicine

November 18, 2021

Nicolás Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. The Monastery of Guadalupe. Main entrance. Photo by Rafa G. Recuero. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 ES. Guadalupe, a small Spanish town in the district of Cáceres, Extremadura, arose around a monastery. Legend says that a shepherd named Gil Cordero was looking for a stray sheep when […]

Strabismo di Venere—Michelangelo’s David

August 27, 2021

Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States Figure 1: Eyes of David. Photo by George M. Groutas. 2019. Via Wikimedia. CC BY 2.0. It is one of the most recognizable sculptures in Western art, the work of an acclaimed Renaissance artist. For over 600 years, it has been viewed by millions of tourists and […]

John Caius, the polymath who described the sweating sickness

August 5, 2021

Philip Liebson Chicago, Illinois, United States John Caius (1510-1573), Master of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. 1563. Unknown painter. Credit: Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge. Imagine being a physician in a rural community in England in the mid-sixteenth century, always concerned with the reappearance of the Black Death. Late one summer you […]