Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: anatomy

  • The first effective chemotherapy for cancer

    Marshall A. LichtmanRochester, New York, United States Sulfur mustard gas had no influence on the outcome of the battle at Ypres during World War I despite the many deaths and severe injuries it inflicted. Since then, chemical weapons have been used in conflicts at least fifteen times between 1919 and 2016—in the Iraq-Iran War, by…

  • Dr. Auzoux and his papier-mâché anatomical models

    The teaching of anatomy has often been impeded by legal restrictions on dissection or by a shortage of cadavers. As drawings or paintings are generally inadequate for the purpose of instruction, some anatomists have resorted to using three-dimensional models made of materials such as wax, wood, or rubber.1-4 Thus in the early part of the…

  • Sir Robert Carswell, illustrious medical illustrator 

    Paris during the greater part of the nineteenth century was the mecca of medicine, home of great surgeons and great physicians. Doctors from all over the world flocked to its hospitals to learn from its famous professors and study pathology in their amply supplied dissecting rooms. Among these students was a Scottish physician named Robert…

  • Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man

    JMS PearceEngland, UK Second only to his Mona Lisa, the most famous drawing in the world of art is perhaps Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) Vitruvian Man. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant girl. He was named after his birthplace Vinci (at Anchiano) near Florence. He became a painter, draftsman, sculptor,…

  • Using Latin to settle medical pronunciation debates

    Raymond NoonanBrooklyn, New York, United States Author’s note: Original Latin words are written in italics, with macrons (ā) indicating long vowels. Equivalent Latin-derived medical terms are given without italics. Acute accents (á) are sometimes used to indicate stress accent in both English and Latin. Informal phonetic spelling that should be familiar to most readers is…

  • John S. Bristowe: Victorian physician and polymath

    Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, UK John Syer Bristowe was a Victorian physician and polymath who served his alma mater, St. Thomas’ Hospital, with great distinction. He was born into a medical family on 19 June 1827 in Camberwell in Southeast London.1 One of his brothers, Thomas Bristowe, became a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1885-1892. In…

  • Julius Caesar Aranzi, anatomist and surgeon of Bologna

    Julius Caesar Aranzi (Aranzio, Arantius) was born in Bologna in 1529 or 1530. As a young man he received a good education even though he hailed from a poor family. He studied under the supervision of his uncle Bartolomeo Maggi, an outstanding surgeon and at one time principal court physician to the Pope. Admitted to…

  • Ahab’s gift: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and the meaning of pain

    Xi ChenRochester, New York, United States In the summer months before my first year of medical school, I unfurled the pages of Moby Dick. Immersed in the novel’s adventurous spirit and Shakespearean prose, I followed the narrator from the piers of Nantucket into the Atlantic and waded through Captain Ahab’s quest for the legendary white…

  • Hippocrates, abortion, and cutting for stone

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States Physicians who take The Oath of Hippocrates swear not to perform abortions or operate for bladder stones: Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both in my life and art. I will not use the knife,…

  • The Dutch anatomy lessons

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom The Hellenistic anatomist Herophilus (c. 330–c. 260 BC) and the physiologist Erasistratus (c. 325–c. 250 BC) were granted limited permission to dissect executed criminals with consent of the first Ptolemaic Pharaohs. This practice, essential for anatomical study, was then suppressed by ancient Greek taboos regarding purity, death, and cutting the…