Tag Archives: Harvard Medical School

A walk with giants

May 12, 2021

Herbert Ausubel Valley Stream, New York, United States   Herbert Ausubel HMS making rounds with Dr. Eliot Joslin the morning after Dr. Joslin underwent an appendectomy. Drawing by Dr. Ernest Greenberg and Louise Chiasson. Having had the opportunity to receive a medical education at Harvard Medical School, I was exposed to several individuals who were […]

The other Timothy Leary

January 19, 2021

Saty Satya-Murti Santa Maria, California, United States   Figure-1: Timothy Leary at work, circa 1920. Credit: Digital Collections and Archives, Tufts University. Source Most people know the name of Timothy Leary as an American counterculture guru and psychologist who had a massive following in the mid-twentieth century. He invoked the names of Gandhi, Jesus, and […]

Maxwell Finland: expert in infectious diseases

August 4, 2020

Martin Duke Mystic, Connecticut, United States   Maxwell Finland in the senior yearbook from the Harvard Class Album 1922. (Credit: HUD 322.04 page 181. Harvard University Archives.) Maxwell Finland (1902-1987) was a remarkable physician, teacher, and researcher in infectious diseases. His life began during the turmoil of the pogroms in Tsarist Russia and ended in […]

Blood and pernicious anemia

January 28, 2020

Omar Alzarkali Batavia, New York, United States   Page from Diagnostic methods, chemical, bacteriological and microscopical, a text-book for students and practitioners by Ralph Waldo Webster. 1914. Accessed via the Internet Archive. Contributed by Gerstein – University of Toronto. Blood is powerful. The mere sight of it can cause an adult to fall to the […]

Harvard medical school and the body snatchers

April 12, 2019

Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, USA   Figure 1: Woodcut illustration from Fasciculus medicinae (1491) depicting a Lector, Ostensor, and Sector during a dissection Their silhouettes surely would have been seen against the backdrop of a moonlit night in 1796 as they entered the North Burying Ground in Boston. Their hearts were likely filled with […]

Helen Taussig: founder and mother of pediatric cardiology

January 27, 2017

Colin Phoon New York, United States   Helen B. Taussig Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia On November 29, 1944, a landmark operation arose from the collaboration of three pioneers: Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig, and Vivien Thomas.1 Now carrying the eponym of the Blalock-Taussig shunt, this was the first “blue baby” operation done during a […]