Tag: George Dunea
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The liver in culture and literature
The liver is the largest internal organ in the body. Dark and heavy with blood, it was often viewed as the seat of the soul, the source of passion, a tool to predict the future, or a symbol of suffering and resilience. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is bound to a rock for stealing fire from…
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Pigeons and doves
The deeper you get into pigeons, the more complicated they get. Are pigeons the same as doves? What are squab and what are quail? Which may you eat, which may you feed, and which may you shoot? It seems to depend on where you live. If pigeons spread disease, why are so many allowed in…
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Akshamsaddin from a medical point of view
The Ottoman scholar Akshamsaddin (Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah, 1389–1459) is remembered more often as the mentor and advisor to Sultan Mehmed II rather than as a physician who contributed remarkably to the medical knowledge of his time. Born in Damascus, he acquired in his youth a significant knowledge of medicine and pharmacology, derived from…
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Virginia Woolf and the Common Reader
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, remains well worth reading. Lovers of English literature admire her wonderful style, and advocates of women’s rights appreciate the sentiments she expressed in her essay “A Room of One’s Own”. During most of her life she was afflicted by intense mood swings…
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The history of typhus
Typhus exanthematicus is an old disease long confused with typhoid fever. Some historians believe that it caused the Plague of Athens as described by Thucydides, and that it was introduced into Europe by the Spanish soldiers returning from the Americas in the sixteenth century. It likely caused the severe epidemic occurring during the confrontations between…
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Wasps, bees, and honey
Bees, wasps, and honey play a potentially important role in the medical world. Only bees make honey, but both bees and wasps are of interest because their bites, though usually trivial, can cause allergic reactions ranging from mild swelling and itching to life-threatening anaphylaxis. These biting insects belong to the order Hymenoptera and need to…
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Thomas De Quincey and the sisters of sorrow
Born in Manchester in 1785, De Quincey was a sensitive child and had an unhappy childhood. His two sisters had died very young, and he was only seven years old when his father was also brought home to die. Left in the guardianship of his mother and four friends of the family, he was sent…
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Septimus Severus: “Omnia fuit, nihil expedit”
“I have been all things, and all was of little value.”1 Septimius Severus was Roman emperor from 193 to 211 CE and is remembered for his reforms, innovations, military campaigns, and severity.1 Born in present-day Libya, he came to the throne after several emperors who ruled briefly after the death of Nero. As emperor, he…
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Ancient medicine on the Nile
Egyptian medicine was already highly advanced by 5000 BCE, and its physicians were highly esteemed. During the Neolithic or last phase of the Stone Age, a flourishing civilization had developed on the fertile banks of the Nile, and around 3100 BCE, King Narmer (or Menes) united what had become the kingdoms of Upper and Lower…