Tag: Howard Fischer
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Book review: The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden In the 1950s, parents on both sides of the Atlantic dreaded the arrival of the annual polio epidemic. In the US, the number of polio cases peaked in the summer. In Scandinavia, the polio season was at its worst in September and October—the “autumn ghost.” Studies done nearly a century earlier indicated…
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Geel, Belgium: 700 years of caring for mentally ill people
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Geel, Belgium is a city of about 40,000 inhabitants, in the Flemish province of Antwerp. It contains a university, and a branch of the esteemed Catholic University of Louvain, and a pharmaceutical plant. Geel may be best known for its centuries-long history of providing care for mentally disturbed individuals. The origin of…
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Burial in modern Greece
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden While much is known about funeral customs in ancient Greece, the particulars of burial in modern Greece have received little outside attention. Today, one half of the population of Greece lives in the two largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki. There is not enough space in big urban centers to conduct burials that…
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Chocolate created a commotion in Chiapa cathedral
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Beware the chocolate of Chiapas.”—Mexican saying The cacao bean, the essential ingredient in chocolate, is native to Southern Mexico, Central America, and South America. There is evidence that chocolate was used in Ecuador over 5,000 years ago.1 The Aztecs produced a ceremonial drink called chocolatl. The Spanish invaders of the New World…
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The bow tie: For nerds only or necessary neckwear?
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “You’ve been with the professors / and they all liked your looks…”–Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man” The tie, whether the long necktie or the bow tie, is a piece of apparel without any real function. It is widely believed that in the late sixteenth century, Croatian mercenary soldiers tied a…
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Marcel Marceau saved children with silence
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “The people who came back from the camps were never able to talk about it…”– Marcel Marceau, French entertainer, explaining why he acted without words Marcel Marceau (1923–2007) entertained people all over the world for sixty years as a mime. He was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France, to a Jewish family.…
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The Polish Medical School at Edinburgh University, 1941–1949
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “…an affirmation that science can be international…”– Surgeon Antoni Jurasz (1882–1961), dean of the Polish Medical School After the Nazi army invaded Poland, the remnants of the Polish military evacuated to France. When France was invaded in the summer of 1940, the Polish forces were sent to Scotland to participate in the…
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Lydia Sherman, serial poisoner
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Poisons were easily obtainable in the nineteenth century, sold for use as household cleaners, vermin control, and in agriculture. By the 1820s, Americans feared being secretly poisoned, “and considered the incidence of murder by poison to be quite high.”1 This “poison panic” was fed by prominent, well-publicized trials. The high incidence of…
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Is Betteridge’s law valid?
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “[I am]…best-known for something that was intended as a throwaway remark.”1—Ian Betteridge Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, stated in 2009, “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no.’” He meant, of course, only yes-or-no type questions. His idea was that if the writer or publisher…