Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Book review of “All manner of ingenuity and industry”: a bio-bibliography of Dr. Thomas Willis 1621-1675

  • Did Louis XVI have phimosis?

    Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States On May 16, 1770, Louis Auguste, the Dauphin of France and the future Louis XVI, married Marie Antoinette, an Austrian archduchess.1 For the next eight years, the poorly matched couple failed to produce an heir, creating yet another source of… Read more

  • The surgeon

    Joseph RumenappChicago, Illinois, United States He kicked the scrub sink again—only a trickle. He missed the smell of the iodine in the morning, almost as much as he missed the chill of the operating room itself. “Don’t bother, Doc,” the scrub nurse chimed behind him.… Read more

  • The neurology of Emperor Claudius

    JMS PearceHull, England Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (10 BC – AD 54) (Fig 1) was a Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54.1 His eventful life was revivified in Robert Graves’s much-admired fictionalized autobiography.2,3 Although one of the most successful Julio-Claudian emperors after Augustus,… Read more

  • Medical lessons from giraffes

    There is a story of a man going to a zoo for the first time and, after staring at a giraffe in astonishment, exclaimed, ‘‘There ain’t no such animal!’’1 Yet African giraffes have long been known to Europeans. They are the tallest living land animals… Read more

  • What a newspaper advice columnist had to say about smoking…in 1691

    Alan BlumKevin BaileyTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States London bookseller John Dunton (1659–1733) could be called the first newspaper advice columnist. In 1691 he and three polymath friends founded the Athenian Society, which began publishing a twice-weekly periodical to answer “all the most Nice and Curious questions Posed by the… Read more

  • Burn

    Arthur WilliamsCincinnati, Ohio, United States Adapted from a chapter of the novel Krooked Ketamine (self-published, 2024) by Arthur Williams. As a surgeon, I have performed a fair amount of skin grafts over the years. To need a skin graft, a person has to have sustained… Read more

  • From healing to superstition and witchcraft

    The roots of witchcraft can be traced back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, where the lines between religion, magic, and medicine were often blurred.1,2 Many healers combined herbal knowledge with rituals, charms, amulets, and incantations, and some were particularly proficient in… Read more

  • The privilege of caring for three Nobel laureates and learning from another

    Kevin LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States My experience with Nobel laureates began on Monday, July 2, 1979. The previous weekend, I had started my urology residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. The outgoing resident had signed out the urology service to me the evening… Read more

  • The birds of death

    Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States I got to know the children’s hospital when I was in my second year of medical school and was assigned to the pediatric rotation. From one perspective, the building had the wrenching sadness of childhood disrupted by illness. But it… Read more

  • Girolamo Fracastoro and syphilis

    JMS Pearce Hull, England In 1924, London’s National Gallery received a bequest from the Mond family, an oil painting titled Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, attributed to Titian about 1528. What special attributes of a Veronese physician made him a suitable subject for the renowned artist… Read more

  • On culinary tasting and a genetic syndrome

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Laurent Grimod de La Reynière1,2 (1758–1837) studied law in Lausanne and on returning to Paris made his name by writing reviews for the Journal des théâtres in 1777–78 and some for the scandal chronicle Correspondence secrète, politique et littéraire. He survived… Read more

  • A trio of Confederate military surgeons: Samuel Moore, James McCaw and Joseph Jones

    Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States The Civil War between the States took a heavy toll, claiming over 600,000 lives, or two percent of the population. Countless more suffered from injuries and other diseases. Reilly1 has listed some of the advances in medical care that… Read more