Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Germ theory

  • The beginnings of cell theory: Schleiden, Schwann, and Virchow

    JMS PearceHull, England Every schoolchild is taught in biology about cells and their elemental importance. Students of biological and medical sciences also learn about the Schwann cell sheath that invests nerve fibers. What is less well known is how these two are related. Schwann, a physician by training, and Schleiden, a botanist from Hamburg, were…

  • Peter Panum and the “geography of disease”

    Kathryne DycusMadrid, Spain In 1846, the Faroe Islands experienced an outbreak of measles, the likes of which had not been seen in sixty-five years. The Danish government called upon a newly graduated physician, Peter Ludwig Panum, to investigate and control its spread. Panum wrote of the experience in his seminal text, “Observations Made During the…

  • John Tyndall, FRS: The beauty of science

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom Over many centuries non-medical people have carried out research into disease and its causes, often making important advances. The 1841 Census estimates suggest a third of all medical practitioners in England were unqualified.a The great scientist John Tyndall (1820–1893) (Fig 1) was not a medical practitioner, but an Irish physicist,…

  • Henrik Ibsen’s diagnosis of the conscience

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the protagonist in Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, An Enemy of the People, thought he had finally landed the ideal position as physician for an idyllic Norwegian resort town. He was well-paid and well-connected; his brother was even the mayor. Life and livelihood centered on the public baths…

  • Abbott Handerson Thayer’s art and fin de siècle American culture

    Gregory RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921) straddled the fin de siècle, and with his brush preserved an American counterculture for posterity. His variegated oeuvre reflects substantive reflections of his period’s medical and religious culture, as well as the earliest American naturalism. His was a momentous time as science unfolded the implications of…