Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: code

  • Herbert William Page and the railway spine controversy

    Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States The first passenger railway journey resulted in the death of a prominent British politician.1 During the 1830s and 1840s,2 railway travel became a popular means of transport in Victorian Britain. By the 1850s, it was clear that this revolutionary… Read more

  • “What’s a soul?”: Richard Selzer finds the spirit in the flesh

    Mahala StriplingFort Worth, Texas, United States When he was a child, Dickie Selzer asked his father, “What’s a soul?” Julius replied, “No such thing.” When his inquisitive son pressed him further, he gave this answer: “Oh, a little bag of air, I suppose, like a… Read more

  • Dancing with spiders: Tarantellas and tarantism

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “There are always hysterical people undergoing extraordinary cures.”– Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man The industrial city of Taranto is in the “heel” of boot-shaped Italy. The Romans called the city Tarentum,1 and part of its historical importance comes from its name. Confusion… Read more

  • A poet for a patient: A tenth century poem by al Mutanabbi

    Sama AlreddawiBarry MeisenbergAnnapolis, Maryland, United States “The Night Visitor”1 Sick of body, unable to rise up…Vehemently intoxicated without wine …And it is as though she who visits me were filled with modesty…For she does not pay her visits save under cover of darkness …I freely… Read more

  • Ragging

    P. Ravi ShankarKuala Lumpur, Malaysia The corridor was long, narrow, and brightly painted. The carpet was torn in a few places and the red wall paint was beginning to peel off. Sixteen of us walked through the corridor into the restaurant. The food was tasty,… Read more

  • Book review: The Imaginary Patient: How Diagnosis Gets Us Wrong

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Making the right diagnosis is central to the medical encounter. A doctor always started off by taking a history, examining the patient, and sometimes performing additional tests. But when a creditable diagnosis could not be made, the medical profession often… Read more

  • Beans: An indelicate subject of conversation

    Anatomy books describe kidneys as bean shaped, but the converse does not apply. This is because beans, multitudinous in their species, come in different shapes and sizes. Many look like small kidneys, but only one is called a kidney bean.1,2 Like their cousins lentils and… Read more

  • Diagnosis: Neurosyphilis. Treatment: Malaria, iatrogenic

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “The syphilitic man was thinking hard…about how to get his legs to step off the curb and carry him across Washington Street. Here was his problem: His brains, where the instructions to his legs originated, were being eaten alive by corkscrews.”– Kurt… Read more

  • Denis Parsons Burkitt

    JMS PearceHull, England Aphorisms from wise medical men and women have fallen out of fashion. Because each line is to a degree debatable, one of my favorites is: Attitudes are more important than abilities.Motives are more important than methods.Character is more important than cleverness.Perseverance is… Read more

  • Ladies in hats

    Alan BlumTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States I was encouraging an overweight patient in patent leather shoes with two-inch heels to start wearing sneakers instead, when she calmly reached into her totebag and pulled out a pair of Nikes. The pumps, she explained, were her “comin’-to-the-doctor shoes.”… Read more

  • A tale of three doctors

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “How true it is that it is difficult to benefit mankind without some unpleasantness resulting for oneself.”– Dr. Edme-Claude Bourru, giving Dr. Guillotin’s eulogy Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, M.D. (1738–1814) was an ex-Jesuit priest, a practicing physician, and a politician just before and during… Read more

  • Garlic in medicine and at dinner

    Garlic (Allium sativum) is a bulbous flowering plant that belongs to the same genus as onions, shallots, chives, and leeks. Its bulbous part consists of 65% water, carbohydrates, organosulfur compounds, protein, and free amino acids. It also produces a substance called allicin which gives it… Read more