Tag: Jayant Radhakrishnan
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Leukemia: White blood
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Leukemia may have afflicted humans as long as 7,000 years ago,1 but it was not diagnosed until the middle of the nineteenth century. Successful treatment would not be available for another 100 years. Peter Cullen described “splenitis acutus” with milky blood in 1811, and Alfred Armand Louis Marie Velpeau identified…
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The history of chemotherapy
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States When Sahachirō Hata developed a cure for syphilis while working in Paul Ehrlich’s laboratory,1 Ehrlich began to look for other chemicals that could destroy infectious agents without affecting normal host cells. In 1907, he coined the term chemotherapy2 and declared that “the optimal agent would combine high parasitotropism with low…
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Spontaneous regression of cancer
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Unexplainable events have always intrigued people. At the top of this list of the uncommon and perplexing is spontaneous cure or regression of cancer. A cure requires that the lesion disappear completely, never to return, letting the person live for a substantial period, and to later succumb from some other…
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Seminal contributions from chiefs of surgery at the University of Illinois
Jayant RadhakrishnanAnthony Chin Chicago, Illinois, United States In May of 1881, Drs. Charles Warrington Earle and Abraham Reeves Jackson conceived of a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (P&S). A core group of physicians immediately procured the necessary licenses and certificates and purchased a lot on Harrison and Honore Streets, near Cook County Hospital. By…
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Snake oil and snake oil salesmen
Jayant Radhakrishnan Chicago, Illinois, United States According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “snake oil” is a noun that refers to “any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without regard to their medical worth or properties.” They also call it “poppycock, bunkum.”1 “Snake oil salesman” originated as a pejorative…
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William Bradley Coley: Visionary or snake oil salesman?
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. William Bradley Coley graduated with a B.A. in the Classics from Yale College. He then taught Latin and Greek in Portland, Oregon, for two years before entering Harvard Medical School. After completing the three-year Harvard course in two years, he passed a competitive examination and was appointed an intern…
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Jane Addams and Hull House
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Important but undramatic humanitarian initiatives that improved the lives of many are easily forgotten. Such is the case of Jane Addams and the ladies of Hull House, whose efforts had a great impact on the lives of Chicago’s underserved populations. Jane Addams unquestionably deserved the Nobel Peace Prize she shared…
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Surgery, gynecology, obstetrics, and pain
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Pain caused by surgical interventions is incorrectly considered an unimportant, self-limiting inconvenience. “Let them scream—it is a relief of nature,” said Benjamin Winslow Dudley, a professor of anatomy, surgery and medicine at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky from 1817 to 1850. If Dudley’s unanesthetized patients squirmed during an operation, he would…
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Diptheria: Horses and dogs to the rescue
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Pierre-Fidèle Bretonneau described diphtheria as a distinct entity in 1821.1 He named it after the Greek word for leather2 because of the thick gray membrane that forms in the throat. Physicians before him, starting with Hippocrates, considered asphyxiating diseases as a group that also included tonsillitis, croup, and malignant angina.…
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Sporozoites: The elusive assassins
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Almost 5,000 years ago, the Chinese described a disease that presented with intermittent fevers, enlarged spleens, and a predilection to epidemics. Those malarial infections were possibly caused by Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) since P. malariae is unlikely to cause epidemics. The Chinese did not mention mortality following these symptoms; therefore,…