Tag: Hekint
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Sylvia Plath: The tortured artist?
Kathleen CoggshallSan Francisco, California, United States The image of a chain-smoking, booze-addled writer is a common one, occurring so frequently in modern culture that one begins to wonder if depressed people find solace in creative endeavors, or if the soul-searching process of crafting a sonnet or composing a musical piece puts one at higher risk…
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A difficult diagnosis: Humor—how we laugh at doctors
Kate BaggottSt. Catharines, Ontario, Canada “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it,”1 silent film star Charlie Chaplin wrote in his autobiography. Chaplin’s words do not exactly connect the funny bone to the humerus, and the anatomy of comedy has never been easy to chart, especially when it…
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Humanities at the heart of healthcare
Victoria BonebakkerPortland, Maine, United States Imagine doctors, nurses, receptionists, trustees, administrators, lab techs and physician assistants, books in hand, sitting in a hospital conference room, cafeteria or lounge. With a humanities scholar serving as a facilitator, they are discussing the novel, short story or poem they have read, and reflecting together on what it means…
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High drama in the scullery
George DuneaChicago, IL This dramatic incident must have taken place around 1930, at a time when great controversy raged about the level at which a life-saving tracheotomy should be done. It is an extract from “High Tracheotomy Low Tracheostomy,” a lecture as given by Sir Clive Fitts at the Royal College of Physicians of London…
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Scribonius Largus
Felipe Fernandez del CastilloMassachusetts, United States We don’t know much about Scribonius Largus. The first century Roman physician has been overshadowed by more famous medical authors like Celsus, Pliny, and Galen. Dismissed by one scholar as “second rate”,1 Scribonius has lurked for centuries in the footnotes of history textbooks and journal articles, and the bulk…
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End-of-life care and contingent vs. non-contingent duties
Ronald W. PiesBoston, Massachusetts, United States Introduction Mr. Joseph B, a 70-year-old widower and retired college professor, is hospitalized in the final stages of metastatic pancreatic carcinoma. His doctors estimate that he has “three or four weeks” to live. The patient is well aware of his prognosis, and, as he puts it, “I have come…
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Charles Harrison Blackley: the man who put the hay in hay fever
Julian CraneWellington, New Zealand Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1980s, there has been a worldwide increase in the prevalence of allergic diseases, asthma, hay fever, and eczema. In the last twenty years the most notable manifestation of this trend has been the rapid rise in food allergy in children.1 Thirty years ago food…