Egypt - Hektoen International

Kwashiorkor

March 1, 2021

Charles Halsted Davis, California, United States An eleven-month-old Egyptian infant sat wailing on a cot, his abdomen pouched out and covered by spider-like purplish veins. His tiny arms and legs were like sticks, except for his swollen ankles. He was brought in by his mother who knew that his food and care would be […]

The Quaker and the Jew, an enduring and impactful friendship: Thomas Hodgkin and Moses Montefiore

October 20, 2020

Marshall A. Lichtman Rochester, New York, United States Obelisk over Hodgkin grave site in Jaffa, Israel. Moses Montefiore, on his return to England, purchased a column of Aberdeen granite nine feet tall and had it inscribed with a lengthy tribute to Hodgkin “as a mark of my respect and esteem.” It was transported to […]

The scourge, the scientist, and the swindle

August 18, 2020

Anne Jacobson Oak Park, Illinois, United States Alice Augusta Ball, 1915. (Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain) “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as […]

Leukemia past and present: Lessons learned and future opportunities

March 3, 2020

Nada Hussein Giza, Egypt John Hughes Bennett. Painting by Henry Wright Kerr. Unknown date. Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward,” said Winston Churchill in a meeting at The Royal College of Physicians in 1944. At that […]

Blood beliefs and practices in Iran

February 10, 2020

Bahar Dowlatshahi Tehrann, Iran Circulation of the blood (human). Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. Blood is believed to have special abilities and properties in many eastern countries such as Iran. Even human personality traits, emotions, and relationships are referred to with blood. Angry people boil their blood; those who are kind and loving are called […]

A history of blood: hysteria, taboos, and evil

January 30, 2020

Danielle Dalechek Norfolk, Virginia, United States The witch no. 1. Joseph E Baker. c1892. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. “Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?” — Carl Jung Historically, the opposite of purity was often viewed and represented […]

The barber-surgeons: Their history over the centuries

January 28, 2020

Anusha Pillay Raipur, India Bloodletting from the arm. Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. “His pole, with pewter basins hung, Black, rotten teeth in order strung, Rang’d cups that in the window stood, Lin’d with red rags, to look like blood, Did well his threefold trade explain, Who shav’d, drew teeth, and breath’d a vein.” – […]

What did Dorothy Reed See?

January 23, 2020

Sara Nassar Cairo, Egypt Dorothy Mabel Reed Mendenhall. Photograph by A. Pearsall, courtesy of Alan Mason Chesney Archives of John Hopkins Medical School. “They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.”1 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet Dorothy Mabel Reed Mendenhall opened the doors of medicine at […]

The Red Cross and hematology pioneers

January 22, 2020

Barnabas Pastory Dar es Salaam, Tanzania The Red Cross and the Red Crescent emblems at the museum in Geneva. Photo by Julius.kusuma on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. Providing medical care to suffering humankind constitutes an important part of the Red Cross’ service scope. History records an important connection between the Red Cross and pioneers […]

Medical innovations made by doctors during the Napoleonic Wars

May 10, 2019

Craig Stout Aberdeen, Scotland The Battle of Waterloo (1815), oil painting by William Sadler. Pyms Gallery, London. The Napoleonic Wars (1799 to 1815) brought great upheaval and turmoil to Europe, with as many as 2.5 million soldiers and 1 million civilians losing their lives. French military physicians, principally Dominique Jean-Larrey, made significant contributions to […]