Tag: Hektoen
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Mikhael Bulgakov’s “The Steel Windpipe” in A Country Doctor’s Notebook
Michael BloorUnited Kingdom Anton Chechov (1860–1904) is Russia’s most famous literary doctor, but another of Russia’s great twentieth century authors also practised medicine. Mikhael Bulgakov (1891–1940) was the banned author of The Master and Marguerita, first published twenty-six years after his death, a novel credited as a progenitor of magic realism and as the inspiration…
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Muslim women healers of the medieval and early modern Ottoman Empire
Nada DarwishAlan S. WeberDoha, Qatar Although known only through court documents, legal proceedings, and references in the writings of male practitioners, the tabiba—a female practitioner of folk medicine, midwifery, and gynecology—was an important member of the medical community in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923). The existing historical record unfortunately obscures the important role that women physicians, nurses,…
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Mark Hanna’s knees and the Panama Canal
Michael EllmanChicago, Illinois, USA Aficionados of the history of the Panama Canal know that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Nicaragua was to be the site for the “American” inter-oceanic canal. A Nicaraguan canal would be hundreds of miles closer to ports in the Gulf of Mexico…
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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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A happy individual knows nothing
Basil BrookeWitwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa It seems that most people, most of the time, tend to avoid the really big questions, the hows and whys of existence, preferring to wait and see what happens when they die. They may tell you, and quite rightly, that whilst alive it is best to get on with the…
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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…
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Rosalyn Yalow: Opinions and actions
Maja NowakowskiBrooklyn, New York, United States “Peer-review process cannot possibly support truly original research because, by definition, an original thinker has no peers.” Anyone who had even a brief conversation with Rosalyn Yalow will recognize her profound insight and bold judgment. These were not idle words: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, the second woman ever to win…
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Changes in childbirth in the United States: 1750–1950
Laura KaplanNew York, New York, United States For most of American history, pregnancy, labor and delivery, and post-partum have been dangerous periods for mother and child. However, starting slowly in the late 18th century and accelerating into the late 19th century, labor and delivery radically changed. Initially new medical interventions, such as forceps and anesthesia,…