Tag: acromegaly
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De l’acromegalie: Maladie de Pierre Marie
JMS PearceHull, England Pierre Marie (1853–1940) described two patients in Charcot’s clinic who showed enlargement of the extremities and face, for which he proposed the term acro-megalie.1 He established and named acromegaly as distinct from other causes of somatic overgrowth. He also acknowledged Saucerotte’s unmistakable earlier account of 1801.2 Pierre Marie described the now classical…
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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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Harvey Cushing and pituitary diseases
JMS PearceHull, England, UK Of the many aspects and contributions of Harvey Williams Cushing (1869-1939) (Fig 1), this sketch concentrates on his identification of a basophilic tumor of the pituitary with adrenal hyperfunction that he called pituitary basophilism1 (Fig 2). It is now known as Cushing’s disease. Symptoms caused by primary adrenal, iatrogenic, and ectopic…
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Sergei Rachmaninoff: The dichotomy of life and music
Michael YafiChaden YafiHouston, Texas, United States Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), a Russian composer, was known for having very large hands. With a span that covered twelve white keys on the keyboard (the interval of a thirteenth), he could play a left-hand chord of C, E flat, G, C, and G.1 This has led some medical experts…
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Sergei Rachmaninov, the pianist with very big hands
Sergei Rachmaninov, the famous Russian composer, pianist, and composer, was born in 1873 into a family that descended from the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great. At age four he began piano lessons and already displayed remarkable talent. He was sent to study music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when ten years old, and, upon being…