Tag Archives: Jewish

The adenoid riots of 1906

December 16, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Sagittal section of nose mouth, pharynx, and larynx showing the adenoids, or pharyngeal tonsils (in green). Not to be confused with the tonsils in the back of the throat. From Grays Anatomy, 20th edition. Bartleby via Wikimedia. Public domain. On June 28, 1906, thousands of Eastern European Jewish women surrounded […]

A celebrated occasion

October 31, 2022

Eli Ehrenpreis Chicago, Illinois, United States   Artwork by Annie Trincot.       She arrives at the office early, looking as if she stepped from a portrait. Her blue eyes glimmer with tears. “My gynecologist has been treating me for hemorrhoids, but the bleeding has been getting worse. It started when I had my […]

Movie review: Pressure Point – treating the hateful patient

March 7, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   “You sing ‘My country ’tis of thee’ while they walk all over you.” — The patient, Pressure Point   German American Bund rally (1938 or 1939). From “Battle of the United States”, produced by Army Information Branch, Army Pictorial Service, Air Forces, and Navy Department in cooperation with all united […]

Professor Bernhardi, a play by Arthur Schnitzler, M.D.

February 8, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Tug-of-war. Photo by KamPraProductions for Foreign Affairs’s production of Professor Bernhardi. Used with permission.   “A spiteful something has been fabricated out of an innocent nothing.” — Dr. Löwenstein in Professor Bernhardi       Professor Bernhardi: A Comedy in Five Acts (1912) is one of seventeen plays written by Arthur […]

COVID-19 and the Black Death

September 3, 2020

Colleen Donnelly  Denver, Colorado, United States   A street during the plague in London with a death cart and mourners. Colour wood engraving by E. Evans. Wellcome Library no. 6918i. Source During the fourteenth century waves of the bubonic plague washed across Europe. Doomsday books of the age described an apocalypse that wiped out one-quarter […]

Dr. Samuel Sarphati

May 5, 2020

Annabelle Slingerland Leiden, the Netherlands   Amsterdam Situation 19th century, image taken from the more extensive video in English by director Fabian Krausz. Times of confusion and uncertainty can also be fruitful grounds for seeds to root, rise, and bloom. One such seed was Dr. Samuel Sarphati, who created New Amsterdam on the banks of […]

Ferdinand Sauerbruch, father of thoracic surgery

March 11, 2020

Annabelle Slingerland Leon Lacquet Leiden, the Netherlands   Ferndinand Sauerbruch at a medical lecture at the University of Zurich, between 1910 and 1917. Source unknown. Accessed via Wikimedia commons. Source Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951) was one of the most important thoracic surgeons of the first half of the twentieth century, remembered for pioneering a method that […]

The sight of blood

January 14, 2020

Joanne Jacobson New York, New York, United States   Human plasma protein solution in bottle, Hertfordshire, Engl. Science Museum, London. CC BY 4.0. None of us live to adulthood without seeing our own blood—growing up, I witnessed my blood flow free of my body too many times to count. The bleeding knee picked clean of leaves […]

Mahler’s endocarditis and broken heart

January 8, 2020

Michael Yafi Houston, Texas, United States   Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Austrian composer, and his wife Alma (1879–1964) near Toblach.. Unknown photographer. 1909. ÖNB, Bildarchiv Austria, Austrian National Library Gustave Mahler (1860-1911) suffered from personal setbacks throughout his life. Despite receiving more acclaim in early 1900, the death of his daughter Maria from scarlet fever and […]

The Rh factor: An intertwined history

December 31, 2019

Paula Carter Chicago, Illinois   Lucy Reyburn Rittgers and two of her daughters, circa 1948. Source: Family photo In 1924, Lucy Reyburn gave birth to her first child, a daughter she named Darlene. Lucy lived in Iowa and the birth was an embarrassment. She had become pregnant and hurriedly married a man who left before […]