Tag: Arpan K Banerjee
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Francisco Javier de Balmis and the first international vaccination campaign
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Smallpox was a human scourge until the early nineteenth century. It had caused almost half a million deaths in Europe alone when Edward Jenner introduced vaccination into clinical practice in 1798 with his famous publication “An enquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae” and the 1801 publication “The…
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József Antall: Hungarian medical historian and political leader
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In the Taban region of Budapest, at the foot of the castle district of the city outside the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History, stands a statue of József Antall, a famous medical historian who became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary in 1990 following the end of Communist rule…
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The Semmelweis Museum of Medical History, Budapest
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Museums on medical themes are uncommon and generally scattered worldwide. Budapest features the Semmelweis Museum, dedicated to one of Hungary’s greatest physicians and the history of medical advances in Hungary. It is the birthplace and childhood home of Ignaz Semmelweis, born there on July 1, 1818. His father had a grocer’s…
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The Trinity Plague Column in Budapest
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In the Buda Castle district of the city of Budapest, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is an elegant square in front of the famous centuries-old Matthias Church with its imposing Gothic spire. This site was a mosque during the Ottoman invasion before being rebuilt as a church in a Baroque style in…
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Book review: Galen: An Anthology
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Galen was born in 129 AD in Pergamon, an important Greco-Roman city of the Hellenistic period in Asia Minor. Today the remnants and ruins of this ancient city are sited in Bergama, a city in northwest Turkey. Galen started learning his medical craft in Pergamon while simultaneously attending lectures in philosophy.…
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Book review: The Science Lover’s Guide to London
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England London, one of the great capital cities of the world, has over the centuries provided writers with inspirational material for both fiction and non-fiction. Famous writers in the first group range from Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, and Charles Dickens to Virginia Woolf and George Orwell in the twentieth century.…
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Book review: Our Brains, Our Selves
Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, England The world of popular science publishing is replete with neurologists who have been fascinated by the workings of the brain gleaned from the study of neurological disorders in their patients. Famous recent writers of this genre include Oliver Sacks, whose books have provided the public with insights into aspects of…
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The mythology of the Sun Fountain in Nice, France
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In Place Masséna, a historic square named after Napoleon’s greatest general, near the old town area of Nice, France, there is a grand fountain in the Baroque style named the Fontaine du Soleil, or the “Sun Fountain.” In the center of the fountain stands a marble sculpture depicting the god Apollo…
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Book review: Frames of Minds: A History of Neuropsychiatry on Screen
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In this fascinating book, author Eelco Wijdicks traces the history of psychiatry and neuropsychiatry in cinema. From the beginnings of commercial film in Paris in 1895, directors and screenwriters have told medical stories, both as entertainment and as a medium for understanding various aspects of the human condition. Frames of Minds…
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Book review: Florence Nightingale’s Rivals: Nursing Through the Crimea
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Florence Nightingale is best remembered as the founder of modern nursing. She opened her famous nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, in 1860. Her principles of nurse training were based on her experiences in the Crimean War a few years earlier. In this interesting and well-written book, the author, herself a…