Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Andrew Williams

  • Clausoque stomacho: An unrecognized factor in the death of the Elder Pliny

    Andrew WilliamsRobert ArnottUnited Kingdom The Elder Pliny (c. AD 23/24–79) was a naturalist and naval commander in the Roman Principate. In addition to his civic and military duties, he spent much of his time investigating, studying, and writing on nature and geography, which he published in his Naturalis Historia. In a letter from the Younger…

  • Did Scythian men feminize themselves by drinking mare’s urine?

    Andrew WilliamsLeicester, United Kingdom The Enarees were nomadic Scythian soothsayers who lived within the areas bounded by the rivers Danube, Bug, Don, and Dnieper, and who Herodotus in the 5th century AD asserted were effeminate.1,2 Unfortunately the Scythians did not leave any written records. Hippocrates’ Airs Water and Places XX11 using the term Anarieis related…

  • “Surrounded with many Mercies”: 270 years of patient advice

    Andrew WilliamsFrederick O’DellNorthampton, United Kingdom On July 9, 1748 Dr. James Stonhouse, physician at the Northampton Infirmary (United Kingdom), published “A Friendly Letter to a Patient just admitted to an Infirmary.”1 Later that year, after some minor revisions, the text was reprinted as “Friendly Advice to a Patient,” which for the next century and beyond…