Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: First World War

  • Macdonald Critchley

    JMS Pearce East Yorks, England   Fig 1. Macdonald Critchley by Norman Hepple. Credit: National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH Arts. Source Macdonald Critchley was a neurologist of elegance and sophistication.1 He was pre-eminently a clinical investigator of disorders of higher mental functions, especially those relating to language. He was the author of many…

  • William John Adie (1886–1935)

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. WJ Adie. Source William John Adie (Fig 1) deserves to be remembered as an unusually gifted, compassionate clinician and teacher, but he is best known for his account of the myotonic (Holmes-Adie) pupil. One of many talented Australians who enhanced British medicine, Adie was born in Geelong, west…

  • Alfred Skirrow Robinson: the colorful life of a Roaring Twenties surgeon

    Stephen Martin Durham, UK & Thailand   Fig 1. Bentley Speed Six. Source: Craig Howell, CC BY 2.0,  Wikimedia In 1926 my grandfather started work for Dr. A.S. Robinson in Redcar, a small town on the Yorkshire coast. The doctor needed a driver—at least that was the plan at first. He sent him for a…

  • Prisoners on leave: Vietnam veterans and the Golden Age Western

    Edward Harvey  Missoula, Montana, United States   Vietnam War – Hue, 17 Feb 1968 – US Marines Approaching Movie Theater Displays – Photo by Nik Wheeler. Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS. Via Flickr. “I think we all died a little in that damn war.” – The Outlaw Josey Wales   “So…what have you been up to?” When…

  • Charles Richard Box: physician, pathologist, and infectious disease pioneer

    Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, UK   Charles Richard Box by Lafayette. Half-plate nitrate negative. 30 August 1928. NPG x42689. Reproduced with Permission from National Portrait Gallery, London. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. The name Charles Richard Box is perhaps not as well-known as some of the medical contemporaries of his time. He had a brilliant career in…

  • The psychological impact of facial injury in the First World War: outcomes from the Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup

    Andrew Bamji Rye, East Sussex, UK   Figure 1. Aerial view of the Queen’s Hospital, c.1920. The operating theatres are in the horseshoe to the left centre of the photograph. Figure 2. The Plastic Theatre.   Modern warfare, and in particular the use of artillery employed against entrenched troops in the First World War, resulted…

  • A flu that brought nations to a standstill

    Jennifer A. Summers London, United Kingdom   Policemen in Seattle, US, wearing masks made by the Red Cross, during the influenza pandemic, December 1918. National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland, United States. The year was 1918 and after four grisly years of the First World War, the longed-for peace was within the grasp…

  • Mary Poonen Lukose

    K.S. Mohindra Ottawa, Ontario, Canada   Dr. Mary Poonen Lukose In a country where the status of women has been less than impressive, the Indian physician Mary Poonen Lukose blazed fiercely forward in a field dominated by men. Specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, she demonstrated innovation, leadership, and effective organizing capacities, making significant contributions to…