Tag: Inventor
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What a newspaper advice columnist had to say about smoking…in 1691
Alan BlumKevin BaileyTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States London bookseller John Dunton (1659–1733) could be called the first newspaper advice columnist. In 1691 he and three polymath friends founded the Athenian Society, which began publishing a twice-weekly periodical to answer “all the most Nice and Curious questions Posed by the… Read more
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Burn
Arthur WilliamsCincinnati, Ohio, United States Adapted from a chapter of the novel Krooked Ketamine (self-published, 2024) by Arthur Williams. As a surgeon, I have performed a fair amount of skin grafts over the years. To need a skin graft, a person has to have sustained… Read more
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From healing to superstition and witchcraft
The roots of witchcraft can be traced back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, where the lines between religion, magic, and medicine were often blurred.1,2 Many healers combined herbal knowledge with rituals, charms, amulets, and incantations, and some were particularly proficient in… Read more
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The privilege of caring for three Nobel laureates and learning from another
Kevin LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States My experience with Nobel laureates began on Monday, July 2, 1979. The previous weekend, I had started my urology residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. The outgoing resident had signed out the urology service to me the evening… Read more
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The birds of death
Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States I got to know the children’s hospital when I was in my second year of medical school and was assigned to the pediatric rotation. From one perspective, the building had the wrenching sadness of childhood disrupted by illness. But it… Read more
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Girolamo Fracastoro and syphilis
JMS Pearce Hull, England In 1924, London’s National Gallery received a bequest from the Mond family, an oil painting titled Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, attributed to Titian about 1528. What special attributes of a Veronese physician made him a suitable subject for the renowned artist… Read more
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On culinary tasting and a genetic syndrome
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Laurent Grimod de La Reynière1,2 (1758–1837) studied law in Lausanne and on returning to Paris made his name by writing reviews for the Journal des théâtres in 1777–78 and some for the scandal chronicle Correspondence secrète, politique et littéraire. He survived… Read more
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A trio of Confederate military surgeons: Samuel Moore, James McCaw and Joseph Jones
Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States The Civil War between the States took a heavy toll, claiming over 600,000 lives, or two percent of the population. Countless more suffered from injuries and other diseases. Reilly1 has listed some of the advances in medical care that… Read more
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Israel Spach the biographer and the Lithopedion of Sens
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Israel Spach (Israele Spachio, Spachius) (1569–1610), was raised and studied in Strasbourg and later in Paris under Jean Riolan the Elder.1 He finished his medical studies at the University of Tübingen under Andreas Planer in 1581.2 In 1589 he returned to… Read more
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The organic food movement
The word organic in the context of chemistry refers to a substance built around a skeleton of carbon (unlike an inorganic substance that most often has no carbon in its formula.) In the world of food, however, organic means that the produce was grown under… Read more
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The Painted Veil: Death from cholera in China
The 1925 novel The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham derives its title from Percy Shelley’s 1824 sonnet, which begins “Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life.” The action takes place during a cholera epidemic in which a missionary doctor quotes… Read more
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Surgeon’s Sorrow
Nayaab MalikAberdeen, Scotland Artist statement Captivated by the daily battles that healthcare staff face at work, I aimed to depict the varied emotions that doctors experience on a routine basis. Each of my three canvases represents a distinct aspect of a surgeon’s emotional voyage. The… Read more