Tag: Howard Fischer
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The bizarre history of the bezoar
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “As for the bezoar [we removed] …we have restricted ourselves from employing its therapeutic power in the practice of medicine.”1– John Moffat, M.D. A bezoar is a compact mass of material that may be found in the digestive tract of mammals, including humans. Bezoars in humans may cause problems. Those found in…
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Dr. Gerhard Hansen – A great discoverer
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.”– Isaac Newton Leprosy, from the Greek lepis, meaning scaly, has been known since antiquity. The disease was widespread in continental Europe and in Scandinavia, reaching its peak prevalence in the twelfth century.1 Leprosy was well established in Ireland in the tenth century.…
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The Truman delusion: All the world’s a stage
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players”– William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7“You know you’ve made it when you have a disease named after you.”– Andrew Niccol, writer of The Truman Show Movies may influence people in unexpected ways. An example…
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France’s most notorious serial killer
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “This Frenchman comes to the assistance of foreign Jews he does not even know.”– Eryane Kahan, a Romanian Jew living in Paris, at Petiot’s trial “He lured the desperate, the frightened…to his lair…and murdered them.”– Pierre Véron, a plaintiff’s attorney at Petiot’s trial In March 1944, in the 16th arondissement of Nazi-occupied…
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Pharaoh’s proctologist: The Shepherd of the Rectum
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Ancient Egyptian medicine was based on religion, magic, and specific conceptions of human anatomy and physiology. The human body was believed to contain twenty-two “channels” (called metu) that carried blood, air, water, urine, mucus, semen, and bodily waste. These channels were arteries, veins, tendons, and nerves.1 A blockage in any channel could…
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Look what they’ve done to my brain: Einstein’s last wish ignored
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “…his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.”– Bob Dylan, “License to Kill” Albert Einstein (1879–1955) is considered to be one of the most influential scientists of all time. His childhood, though, was not very promising. He did not speak until he was three years old. There is also reason to believe…
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What can the candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) do?
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “[N]o one has stepped forward to observe the candiru’s life cycle in situ.”– William Burroughs, Naked Lunch Humans, like other animals, are subject to infections, infestations, colonization, and invasion by a wide variety of organisms. We are preyed on by viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans, worms, and insects. We may be eaten by…
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Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and the Berlin Institute for Sexual Science, 1919–1933
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Per scientiam ad justitiam” (Justice through science)– Motto engraved over the entrance to the Institute for Sexual Sciences Paragraph 175 (§175) of the German Penal Code, adopted in 1871, criminalized male homosexual activity, making it punishable by imprisonment and loss of civil rights. In addition, the enormous social stigma attached to being…
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BCG: The vaccine that took thirteen years to develop
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Early French advertisement for BCG (“BCG Protects Against Tuberculosis”). Retouched crop of photo by Rathfelder on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.” – Victor Hugo Tuberculosis of the lungs (“consumption”) was one of the two main causes of death (along with pneumonia) at the start of…
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Noma: The disfiguring, devouring disease
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “Maladie dévoreuse de beauté et de vie”1 (“An illness devouring both beauty and life”) – Edmond Kaiser, founder of the humanitarian organization Fondation Sentinelle Noma (gangrenous stomatitis). Illustration by Robert Froriep, 1836. © Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Charité, Barbara Herrenkind. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Noma (also called necrotizing ulcerative stomatitis,…