Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: History Essays

  • Marfan syndrome and Abraham Lincoln

    Umut Akova Atlanta, Georgia, United States   The earliest presidential portrait of Lincoln. Salt print, 1787. Via Wikimedia. Marfan syndrome is a rare, inherited genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissues. People with Marfan syndrome often have distinctive physical features such as tall stature, long limbs, joint hypermobility, and a narrow face. The condition is…

  • The mysterious death of Margaret, child queen of Scotland

    Juliana Menegakis St. Andrews, Scotland   No contemporary images of Margaret survive. This stained-glass window was installed in the town hall of Lerwick, Shetland, in the late 19th century. The banner reads, “Margaret, queen of Scotland and daughter of Norway.” The Maid of Norway photo by Colin Smith on Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0. Upon the…

  • Biblical leprosy: A dermatologist’s perspective

    Harry Goldin Skokie, Illinois, United States   “‘Unclean! Unclean!’ … ” Underwood and Underwood Publishers, 1896. Crop of photo by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT on Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0.  The descriptions of “leprosy” in chapter 13 of the Book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible are complex and difficult to understand. This confusion…

  • Hanaoka Seishū, inventor of an early general anesthetic

    Kingston Bridges London, United Kingdom   Hanaoka performing the first operation with tsūsensan. University Hospital Medical Information Network Center. Since time immemorial, humans have sought to alleviate illness and suffering through surgical interventions. Amputations with improvised tools took place in the Upper Paleolithic period over 30,000 years ago, and skeletal evidence of trephining has been…

  • A tale of two physicians and Albert Göring

    Avi Ohry Tel Aviv, Israel   Hermann Epenstein. Via German Wikipedia. Fair use. Hermann Epenstein Ritter von Mauternburg (1850–1934) was a physician and merchant who played a significant role in the lives of anti-Nazi activist Albert Göring and his family. He was their family doctor, a close friend, and godfather to Albert and his older…

  • The death of Socrates and common hemlock

    Umut AkovaAnkara, Turkey Socrates (469–399 BC) was the ancient Greek philosopher most often credited with pioneering Western philosophy and with founding the Socratic method, a dialectical approach to questioning and critical thinking. Known for his pursuit of ethical truths and moral principles, he engaged individuals in open-ended discussions that often revealed contradictions in their beliefs.…

  • The resident doctors’ strike: Montreal, 1934

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Pavillon Mailloux of the Hôpital Notre-Dame de Montréal. Photo by Sarah Ismert, Marie-Laurence Maisonneuve, and Jennifer Marcout. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. “We don’t want him because he’s a Jew. But we are not antisemites.”1 – From a statement by striking residents at Hôpital Notre-Dame, Montreal   Samuel Rabinovitch, M.D.,…

  • The changing role of the apothecary

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. Old apothecary’s shop* Some of us oldies may remember the word “apothecary” above a pharmacist’s shop window or in old photographs (Fig 1). But how did the apothecaries come to be? And how did they relate to Medicine? There are early records of pharmacy in Mesopotamia around 2600…

  • The barber-surgeons

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. Franz Anton Maulbertsch’s The Quack (c. 1785) showing barber-surgeons at work. Today, the conjunction of two such opposite functions as haircutting and surgery seems incongruous. Amongst early monasteries in England were St. Augustine’s in Canterbury, founded in AD 598 by St. Augustine, and Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island…

  • Medicine and the Jews in the Middle Ages

    Shelley Grach Chicago, Illinois, United States   “Doctor Schnabel” (“Dr. Beak”), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome. Engraving, after 1656. Via Wikimedia.  In the Middle Ages, fear and superstition often stood in the path of helping the sick, as maladies were believed to result from the sins of the afflicted. These roadblocks were compounded by…