Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Fortunio Liceti

  • Dr. Arnold Kadish: Insulin pump inventor and “Diabetes Dad”

    Paige EdmistonSeattle, Washington, United States A black-and-white photograph of a man covered in tubing and wearing an unwieldy backpack-sized device (Figure 1) beamed from the screen at the front of the classroom. The nurse leading the diabetes education class walked from the podium to a… Read more

  • Spontaneous regression of cancer

    Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Unexplainable events have always intrigued people. At the top of this list of the uncommon and perplexing is spontaneous cure or regression of cancer. A cure requires that the lesion disappear completely, never to return, letting the person live for… Read more

  • Jane Campbell Munro in Regency India

    Stephen MartinThailand Jane Campbell1 (1790–1850) was catapulted from humble beginnings on a farm in Georgian Scotland2 to a life of stresses and medical danger in India. When her uncle died unexpectedly, Jane’s father inherited Craigie House,3 a Scottish mansion by the river in Ayr. At… Read more

  • Below decks, a different war

    Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia In October 1770, H.M. Bark Endeavour limped into the port of Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia), after having almost foundered on the Great Barrier Reef. The hardy crew of Captain James Cook (1728–1779), although renowned for… Read more

  • Stigma and truth in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier” (1926)

    Shreya SharmaLondon, Ontario, Canada Throughout history, visible illness has been feared, medically and socially. Diseases with physical manifestations such as leprosy have carried a severe stigma, often leading to misdiagnoses, isolation, and discrimination. But what happens when fear, rather than science, dictates medical care? Arthur… Read more

  • The Carpathian wolves of Saki

    The relationship between wolves and humans is old and complex. It oscillates between hostility and cooperation and eventually results in domestication as dogs. In Norse mythology, wolves were a powerful force destined to bring about the end of the world. To scientists today, wolves offer… Read more

  • Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680): Genius of the Baroque

    Gian Lorenzo Bernini was a sculptor and architect whose work fundamentally transformed the artistic landscape of 17th-century Baroque Europe. He created works that broke free from classical restraint, introducing unprecedented movement and theatrical drama into stone, and he was able to create moments of intense… Read more

  • Eating goat

    The goat was among the first animals to be domesticated, around 10,000 years ago, in Western Iran and the Euphrates River valley, reflecting its importance as a reliable source of meat and milk. It is primarily eaten in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and it… Read more

  • Gerhard Armauer Hansen’s unethical person-to-person leprosy transmission experiment in 1879

    Douglas LanskaMadison, Wisconsin, United States Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen (1841–1912)1 is remembered for his discovery in 1873 of Mycobacterium leprae as the causative agent of leprosy. However, Hansen’s legacy also includes unethical behavior for which he was convicted and lost his post at the… Read more

  • Artists at war

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), author and poet, served as a nurse during the United States Civil War. In 1862, she worked at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, Washington, DC, where she found appalling conditions. She attended the wounded, fed them, and… Read more

  • John B. Murphy, “The surgical genius of his generation”

    Barbara MeraEmma RyanJulius BonelloPeoria, Illinois, United States At the end of the 1800s, the art of surgery was changing. The almost universal usage of anesthesia, coupled with the growing support of germ theory and the beginnings of antiseptic surgery, enabled people to undergo less painful… Read more

  • More than a meal: How school lunch became a lifelong lesson

    Scarlett SaittaJonesboro, Arkansas, United States I first began to question the US food system when my friend’s father died of a heart attack in his late thirties. A few days after the funeral, my friend’s mother kindly served us boxed mac and cheese stamped “low… Read more