Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Haitian National University School of Medicine

  • From “The Sad Shepherd” by W.B. Yeats

    Nuka GbafahDublin, Ireland In his poem, Yeats portrays the load of depression weighing upon a desolate shepherd and his bid to find compassion and comfort in the inanimate world. We are not being told whether he is dispirited because of the isolation of his vocation,… Read more

  • The twelve children of Isabel II

    Nicolas RoblesBadajoz, Spain Isabel II de Borbón, Queen of Spain from 1833 to 1868, was born in 1830 in Madrid. She was a daughter of Ferdinand VII and succeeded him to the throne in 1833 shortly after her birth. Each European power presented a candidate… Read more

  • Cultural taboos, Marvin Harris, and The Abominable Pig

    Zachary SorensenChicago, Illinois, United States Many ancient cultural traditions persist through religious practice to this day. They are particularly evident in the taboos surrounding food. In The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig, anthropologist Marvin Harris explores the food taboos of the ancient world, particularly… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • Antecedents of Crohn’s disease

    JMS PearceHull, England Crohn’s disease was described on several occasions before Crohn’s seminal publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association1 with his two colleagues in 1932. Many reports of a Crohn’s-like condition have claimed priority. Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682–1771) of Padua, the pioneer… Read more

  • The mythology of the Sun Fountain in Nice, France

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In Place Masséna, a historic square named after Napoleon’s greatest general, near the old town area of Nice, France, there is a grand fountain in the Baroque style named the Fontaine du Soleil, or the “Sun Fountain.” In the center of… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • The neuroscientific legacy of the Vogt family

    Grace O’ConnorRichard BrownHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Introduction Oskar and Cécile Vogt were pioneering neuroscientists who established a brain research center in Berlin, Germany, in the early twentieth century. Their work advanced the field of neuroscience through studies on brain architecture and function, including the mapping… Read more

  • Worth the wait

    Jennifer WalkerCarbondale, Illinois, United States Being a mom was something I knew I wanted from an early age, but no one thinks when you decide to start a family, that it might take years to happen. My husband and I have been together since high… Read more

  • Louis Leakey: Pioneering the study of human evolution in Africa

    Zachary SorensenChicago, Illinois, United States Louis Seymour Bazet Leakey was a paleoanthropologist and archaeologist renowned for his fieldwork in East Africa. His career spanned several decades, and he made important contributions to our understanding of human origins. His research dramatically shaped the way the world… Read more

  • 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)… Read more

  • The memoirs of Catherine the Great: Forecasting death

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Courageous and voracious in her quest for power, Empress Catherine the Great (1729–1796) dominated the world stage of politics in the second half of the eighteenth century. The daughter of a Lutheran German prince, she traded her homeland, changed her… Read more