Tag: George Dunea
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Tonsillectomy, then and now
The story of tonsillectomy can be traced back to antiquity. As early as 2000 BC, Ayurvedic doctors used primitive tools and herbal remedies to remove their patients’ pus-laden tonsils. In Roman times, Cornelius Celsus (25 BC–50 AD) shelled out tonsils with only his fingers, Galen of Pergamon used a wire snare (121–200 AD), and Paul…
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Sulfonamides: The first synthetic antibacterial agents
Few discoveries in medicine have a more interesting history than the introduction of the sulfonamides into clinical medicine.1 I feel somehow part of this process only because, having suffered from some febrile illness as a little boy, I distinctly remember being given a medicine that went by the name of “rubiazol” and turned the urine…
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Pietro Grimani: Venetian Doge and Fellow of the Royal Society (1667–1752)
Pietro Grimani was one the most cultured of the 120 Doges who served as chief magistrates and leaders of the city and republic of Venice for more than one thousand years. Born into an ancient aristocratic family that had held essential positions in Venetian society, he had studied the classics as a young man, including…
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Reminiscences of a medical student in Australia
Some years ago a tourist shown the shopping Galleria in Milan asked the guide why the ceiling paintings illustrating the world’s continents did not include Australia. The guide explained that Australia had yet to be invented. She was clearly misinformed in that the British had established the penal colony at Botany Bay some one hundred…
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Paul Farmer, MD (1959–2022)
Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical pioneer anthropologist, academician, and physician. He co-founded and was chief strategist of Partners in Health (PIH), an international nonprofit organization that since 1987 has provided health care services, undertaken research, and advocacy on behalf of the poor and sick. Dr. Farmer grew up in Alabama during much of…
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Margaret Mead (1901–1978), controversial anthropologist pioneer
Margaret Mead is remembered as one of the most important, though controversial, anthropologists of the twentieth century. She became famous through her classic work Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), in which she described the life and sexual practices of teenagers on two Samoan islands in the South Pacific. Her books were widely read and…
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The history of eyeglasses
Efforts to improve vision date back to the ancient civilizations of India and China. Greek scholars such as Ptolemy and Euclid endeavored to understand the physics of light refraction, the mechanisms of lenses, and how their properties can enhance vision and literacy. The Romans magnified the letters they were looking at by placing reading stones…
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James Parsons, physician and linguist (1705–1770)
Born in Devon and educated in Dublin, James Parsons studied medicine in Paris and became doctor of medicine at Rheims in 1736. Appointed physician to the public infirmary of St. Giles in 1738, he began an obstetric practice in London and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He studied antiquities, the fine arts, muscular…
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Von Recklinghausen (1833–1910)
Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen is remembered eponymously for describing the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type 1. He was born in 1833 in Gütersloh, Westphalia, where his father was an elementary school teacher, and his mother died shortly after his birth. He attended high school at Ratsgymnasium in Bielefeld, studied medicine at the universities of Bonn, Würzburg,…