Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: John Hunter

  • John Abernethy

    John Abernethy, surgeon (1764-1831). Engraving by John Cochran after a painting by Thomas Lawrence. c. 1820-1840. First published in vol. 4 of Medical portrait gallery. Biographical memoirs of the most celebrated physicians, surgeons, etc., etc., who have contributed to the advancement of medical science. by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. John Abernethy was…

  • John Hunter, his wolf dogs, and the inherited smiles of Pomeranians

    Stephen Martin United Kingdom   Fig 1. Title of Hunter’s Royal Society wolf dogs paper. © Author, from original, CC-BY 4.0 John Hunter, 1728-1793, was a polymathic doctor. Besides being an anatomist and clinician, he was also interested in early genetics, exemplified by his “Observations tending to shew that the Wolf, Jackal, and Dog, are…

  • Leeching and François-Joseph-Victor Broussais

    JMS Pearce Hull, England, UK   Fig 1. Broussais & leeching. Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica. The practice of bloodletting began with the Egyptians and was succeeded by the Greeks, Romans (including Galen), and healers in India. In medieval times it spread throughout Europe. The “leech craze” was so popular in the nineteenth century that it has…

  • The three contraries of Benjamin Franklin: “the gout, the stone and not yet master of all my passions”

    James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States   Fig 1: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin. From a carbonic alloy engraving, drawn by C. N. Cochin 1777, engraved by A.H. Richie. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia  On May 23, 1785, Benjamin Franklin wrote from Passy on the outskirts of Paris to George Whatley that “at Fourscore the three…

  • John Hunter, Harvey Cushing, and acromegaly

    Kevin R. Loughlin Boston, Massachusetts, United States   Figure 1. Charles Byrne, a giant, George Cranstoun, a dwarf, and three other normal sized men. Etching by J. Kay, 1794. Credit: Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0) Introduction John Hunter and Harvey Cushing were two of the most preeminent surgeons of their eras. John Hunter is considered…

  • Thomas Young MD FRS (1773-1829): “The Last Man Who Knew Everything.”

    JMS Pearce East Yorks, UK   Fig 1. Thomas Young. Mezzotint by G. R. Ward, 1855, after Sir T. Lawrence. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) It is impossible to place precisely Thomas Young (Fig 1) into any professional class. He was both physician and scientist, renowned for an astonishing range of…

  • William Cullen (1710-1790)

    William Cullen. 18th century. Unknown author. Via Wikimedia. William Cullen ranks high among the illustrious members of the Scottish Enlightenment. Friend of Adam Smith and physician of David Hume, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow and later of Edinburgh, he was appointed physician to the King in Scotland and became one of…

  • Two great Scots: John and William Hunter

    B. Herold Griffith Chicago, Illinois, United States   Excerpted from a presentation at the meeting of the Society of Medical History of Chicago October 3, 2006   Portrait of William Hunter. Hunterian Society loan to the Wellcome Collection. Public domain. Of the many surgeons who have had ties to Glasgow over the past 500 years…

  • Sir Astley Cooper: the surgeon’s surgeon

    Astley Cooper, one of the most famous surgeons of his time, was born in Norfolk in 1768. He began his studies in anatomy at the age of sixteen at St. Thomas’ Hospital, attended the lectures of the great surgeon and anatomist John Hunter, and was appointed at Guy’s Hospital as demonstrator in anatomy in 1789 and…