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

  • Honeymoon rhinitis: My love is like a red, red nose

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “I’m pretty sure that…you will admit that a good rousing sneeze…is really one of life’s sensational pleasures.”– Robert Benchley (1889–1945), American humorist “Honeymoon rhinitis” is a condition that includes nasal congestion, sneezing, and rhinorrhea (runny nose) during sexual arousal or sexual intercourse.1,2… Read more

  • Healing beyond the sterile chamber

    Brody FoglemanSpartanburg, South Carolina, United States A senior resident once shared with me: “Patients don’t heal in the hospital; they get sicker. Our goal is to stabilize, medically optimize, and discharge.” Though I was surprised by such a statement, it became truer the more patients… Read more

  • Charlotte Gilman, Weir Mitchell, and “The Yellow Wallpaper”

    Jack RiggsMorgantown, West Virginia, United States Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived a complex and controversial life.1 A prolific writer and lecturer, she advocated for the social, economic, and civic liberation of women.1 She was also a nationalist, eugenicist, and white supremacist.1 Despite her prominent feminist role,… Read more

  • Charles Dickens and the Victorian perception of blindness

    Curtis MargoLynn HarmanTampa, Florida, United States Charles Dickens (1812–1870), the most recognized English author after Shakespeare, left a legacy of fictional characters, many of whom are inseparably associated with the cruelties of the Industrial Age, poverty, and disability. On his first trip to America, Dickens… Read more

  • Agatha Christie’s poisons: Better dying through chemistry

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Everything is a poison. Nothing is a poison. It is all a matter of dose.”—Claude Bernard, French physiologist (1813–1878) Agatha Christie (1890–1976) wrote sixty-six detective novels, fourteen collections of short stories, and three plays. She is the best selling fiction writer ever… Read more

  • Limping into victory

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel There were people with disabilities in history who were not “limping into oblivion,”1 but rather paved their way to accomplishments and victories.2 The emperor Claudius, who may have had cerebral palsy or dystonia, reigned in the first century AD. During that… Read more

  • Escargot—Fine dining

    Escargot is the French word for edible land snails. It usually refers to the genus Helix (aspersa or pomatia), the members of which have been a delicacy enjoyed as food for many centuries. Their original ancestor evolved from a single cell organism almost a billion… Read more

  • Eating chicken

    The common chicken (Gallus domesticus) is a member of the Phasianidae family that also includes pheasants, partridges, quails, and turkeys. Its ancestor, the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) was domesticated in Southeast Asia and China before 7000 BC and was valued for its eggs and… Read more

  • The Manneken Pis: Still peeing after all these years

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Belgium’s culture of excretion goes back centuries.”1– Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, art historian and professor at the University of Paris Artists in the low countries did not hesitate to depict human bodily functions. The great Netherlandish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569) had scenes… Read more

  • Noah Webster’s war on words

    JMS PearceHull, England “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” When Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (III.3) speaks this line, he reminds us of the singular importance of the use of words, and hence the need, even for… Read more

  • Two composers named Arlen

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel “Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony,must investigate discord.”– Plutarch (AD 46–120), Demetrius, sec I Harold Arlen,1 composer of popular music, was born in 1905 in Buffalo, New York, as Hyman Arluck, the child of a… Read more

  • Scientific discoveries in dreams: Sleeping while the mind works

    Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States Some major scientific discoveries have been revealed in dreams during sleep. Since ancient times, Western culture has included a deep belief in the power of dreams to provide information. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 500 BC) spoke of how “even… Read more