Tag: George Dunea
-
Peter the Great and his reforms
Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 and is remembered for his reforms that modernized the Russian state. Born in 1672, he became tsar at a young age, though he initially ruled jointly with his half-brother Ivan V under the regency of his sister Sophia. During his reign, he transformed Russia from a…
-
The Count of Monte Cristo: Medical
Alexandre Dumas père was inspired to write The Count of Monte Cristo by the experiences of his father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, son of a minor French nobleman and an enslaved Caribbean woman. Thomas-Alexandre was the first black general in the French army and accompanied Napoleon on his campaign to Egypt. On his return, his ship was…
-
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832): Medical aspects
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) is widely credited with inventing and popularizing the modern historical novel. Born in Edinburgh in 1771, he grew up during the intellectual ferment of the Scottish Enlightenment. At eighteen months, he developed a fever followed by permanent lameness in his right leg—consistent with paralytic poliomyelitis. In the hope that the country…
-
Virginity now and then
Virginity is sometimes regarded as an indelicate subject. It is also one of history’s most cultural artifacts, less a biological fact than a social fiction refined over millennia. At its most literal, it means to have never engaged in sexual intercourse. Over time, however, it has become tied to ideas of purity, honor, and social…
-
Medicine in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which existed from 1867 until its dissolution in 1918, was one of the most scientifically vibrant states in the world. Its medical culture, centered primarily in Vienna but extending across a sprawling, multiethnic realm, produced some of the most consequential advances in modern medicine. From pathology and psychiatry to immunology and public…
-
The violent death of Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s tragic poet
Alexander Pushkin, the “Sun of Russian Poetry,” is credited with transforming old-fashioned Russian into a rich, modern, and vibrant language. According to Dostoevsky, “Pushkin came to Russia as a new guiding light, a brilliant illumination of our dark ways.” Nikolai Gogol wrote that “To move from Pushkin to anything else is like moving from a…
-
Ernest Hemingway: A medical portrait
From a medical point of view, the life of Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was shaped by repeated physical trauma, chronic disease, hereditary factors, and profound psychological influences. In the world of literature, he is remembered for his minimalist prose—spare, direct, “bare-bones”, and stripped of ornamentation. But behind the muscular sentences and the mythology of masculine bravado…
-
The medical life of Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) was a novelist, short story writer, and poet. Raised in New England, she was an abolitionist and feminist, remained unmarried, and became active in reform movements such as temperance and women’s suffrage. As her family always lived on the poverty line, she took on various jobs at an early age and…
-
The legend of Prester John
In 1187, the army of Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, recaptured Jerusalem for the Muslim world by defeating the Christian Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in Galilee. Under the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II, the Crusaders briefly retook Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), but the trend was irreversible, and by 1244…
-
Viking medicine and health
The Vikings raided Europe for more than 300 years, beginning with their attack on the Northumbrian monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 which caused horror across the continent. They came from Scandinavia, where local communities had lived by farming, fishing, and local trade, but where scarce arable land, political rivalries, and a tradition of seafaring all…