Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: JAMA

  • Dr. AJ Cronin: Still persona non grata?

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “I have written all I feel about the medical profession, its injustices, its hide-bound unscientific stubbornness . . . The horrors and inequities detailed in the story I have personally witnessed. This is not an attack against individuals but against a system.”1—AJ Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (1896–1981) was born in Scotland to…

  • Morris Fishbein, MD—foe of four-flushers, flimflammers, and fakes

    Laura KingAtlanta, Georgia, United States Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 22, 1889, and raised in Indianapolis, Morris Fishbein emerged from his humble origins as the second eldest of eight children born to a Jewish immigrant tin peddler (Benjamin Fishbein) and his wife (Fannie Fishbein) to become the preeminent physician of his generation. After…

  • The hunt for a yellow fever therapy

    Edward McSweegen Kingston, Rhode Island, United States   Roux’s syringe for delivering antitoxin, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.  Source In March 2020, a research group in China reported the use of convalescent plasma to treat ten patients suffering from coronavirus COVID-19 infections.1 This type of therapy—passive immunization—dates back to 1891 when the German bacteriologist Emil…

  • “Let the people see what I’ve seen”: beauty, suffering, and learning to see

    John EberlyRaleigh, North Carolina, United States Charles Stegeman, professor of fine arts at Haverford College, once took up the task of teaching medical students how to draw. He did so because he observed that students who learned to draw well went on to perform better in anatomy.1 They could see better, not just in terms…