Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Hippocampus

  • Medical terminologies inspired by the animal world

    Saty Satya-MurtiSanta Maria, California, United States In the transitional decades from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, restrictions against human cadaveric dissection gradually dissipated. This gave Italian and French anatomists an opportunity to break away from rigid dogmas and incorrect Galenic (Galen of Pergamon, 129–216 CE) pronouncements. Religious and moral taboos had long prohibited detailed human…

  • Julius Caesar Aranzi, anatomist and surgeon of Bologna

    Julius Caesar Aranzi (Aranzio, Arantius) was born in Bologna in 1529 or 1530. As a young man he received a good education even though he hailed from a poor family. He studied under the supervision of his uncle Bartolomeo Maggi, an outstanding surgeon and at one time principal court physician to the Pope. Admitted to…

  • Modern neuroscience and the ideas of the Enlightenment

    Stephen MartinDurham, United Kingdom The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement in eighteenth-century Europe that had a major influence on the arts, science, education, religion, and politics. Its principles paved the way for women to work in professions (fig 1), advanced freedom and equality, and promoted racial and religious tolerance. Enlightenment ideas centered on ways of…

  • Staining the cells of the nervous system

    Camillo Golgi (1843 –1926) was an Italian biologist and pathologist, now recognized as the greatest neuroscientist of his time. He studied and worked at the University of Pavia, where he developed a technique of using potassium dichromate and silver nitrate to stain cellular components black. Using this stain he was able to discover the organelle now known as the Golgi apparatus, consisting…

  • Ex memoriam: A eulogy for a med school factoid

    Samer MuallemPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of yet another beloved colleague and friend, the Branches of the Internal Iliac Artery. Like those who have gone before him, he was taken from us far too soon, during yet another brutal morning rounds. This marks the fourth time this week that the…