Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Durham

  • Christian Sibelius: Finland’s first professor of psychiatry

    Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States When the name Sibelius is mentioned, most people will think of the famous Finnish composer, Jean. Outside of Scandinavia, few will know that Jean’s younger brother, Christian, achieved distinction in a very different field: psychiatry. Even less well-known is the multi-generational presence of physicians in Christian’s family, starting with…

  • St. Godric and the lost leper hospital of Darlington

    Stephen MartinUK In the late 1100s, the English monk Reginald of Durham wrote an account in Latin of the hermit St. Godric, whom he knew personally.1 Reginald attributed over two hundred healing miracles to him, with detailed descriptions including the patient’s name and origin.2 Reginald’s book deserves to be better known as a rich catalogue…

  • The memorial of Thomas Johnson, eighteenth-century barber surgeon

    Stephen MartinDurham, UK, and Thailand In the churchyard of St. Brandon in Brancepeth1 village, County Durham, UK, is an unusual headstone monument.2 (Fig 1) Dating to the very last year of the eighteenth century, it has three sections, including the name and dates, and then a cryptic verse pertaining to judgment. Carved in relief within…

  • To see or not to see

    J. Trig BrownDurham, North Carolina, United States In my youth I watchedthe body countmount.In black and whitethe nightly news“and that’s the way it is”Saint Walter mouthed,to living rooms nationwide.This visible enemyInvisibly changing us all. Today, masked, I watchthe body countmount.In high definitioncolorful graphics,erratic, non-stop messaging,fingers pointingfingers crossed,this invisible enemyvisibly changing us all. J. TRIG BROWN,…