On the way to school
Mary Jumbelic Syracuse, New York, United States Illustration by Joshua Jumbles. Published with permission. A thin line of blood oozed from a shallow cut in the skin, like the first stroke of an artist’s brush on a blank canvas. The second and third incisions intersected the first to form a large Y-shape. Sanguinous fluid […]
Ludwig van Beethoven: music and medicine
Michael Yafi Chaden Yafi Houston, Texas, United States Beethoven home and surrounding area. Photos by Michael Yafi. December 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The causes of the composer’s deafness and his death at the age of fifty-six have remained unknown, even after an autopsy carried out soon […]
Howard Kelly’s avant-garde autopsy method
Julius P. Bonello, George E. Tsourdinis Peoria, Illinois, United States Figure 1. Dr. Howard Kelly (Photo courtesy of The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions)3 Once dubbed the “Prince of Gynecology,” Dr. Howard A. Kelly was one of the most prominent surgeons in the United States in the early […]
The legacy and maladies of Jonathan Swift
JMS Pearce England, UK Fig 1. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (Fig 1.) is best known for his popular Lemuel Gulliver’s: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World published in 1726. (Fig 2.) Exciting adventures combine with satirical metaphors that parodied contemporary customs and politics. Lemuel Gulliver, the narrator, begins as a modern man […]
The Autopsy II
F. Inge Faust East Orange, New Jersey, United States The Autopsy As from a surreal painting from long ago Or a bizarre story by Henry Thoreau A disquiet inside me begins to grow That will repeatedly return—I know. Spread before me is quite a scene: An Asian man not too tall but lean. He […]