Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: John Maler Collier

  • The Siege of Constantinople as witnessed by a physician, 1453

    The diary by Nicolò Barbaro of the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks remains one of the most valuable firsthand sources of the seven-week siege of the Byzantine capital by the forces of Sultan Mehmed II. The author was an Italian physician, born into… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • A doctor in his own mind

    Harvey LiebermanRockville Centre, New York, United States Over the past two centuries, medicine has evolved from a practice steeped in mysticism to a discipline grounded in science. Yet, even today, many people yearn for healers who combine scientific expertise with a touch of the mystical—who… Read more

  • Curing in bureaucracy: Medical professionals and the rise of the US pension system

    Catherine TangPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The rise of the American federal pension system in the wake of the Civil War made doctors suddenly responsible for denying or approving veterans’ pension applications. This new legal duty sometimes strained the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. John W. Wright, an… Read more

  • The life and science of Pierre Curie (1859–1906)

    Pierre Curie was a pioneering physicist whose scientific achievements, notably in collaboration with his wife, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, have had a lasting impact on the field of physics. He was born in 1859, having a doctor as his father and a well-educated woman as his mother.… Read more

  • Gregor Johann Mendel, father of modern genetics (1822–1884)

    Gregor Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who laid the foundation of the science of heredity and genetics. Although his contributions to science were not widely recognized during his life, his work with pea plants in the mid-19th century revolutionized our understanding of… Read more

  • The illness and death of Jane Austen

    The final years of Jane Austen were overshadowed by a mysterious illness that has long since been a subject of speculation and debate. Her health began to decline in early 1816, when she was around forty years old. Her letters from that period make occasional… Read more

  • Doctoring while pregnant

    Katie TaylorOakland, California, United States “Are you sexually active?”  “No, but you are,” a patient, one day in early spring, responds. Her timing is good, and the point is obvious. I am twenty weeks pregnant and showing, belly at two-thirds basketball.  When I tell an… Read more

  • Patient choice—Is it always appropriate?

    Denis ChenNewcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom  Beauchamp and Childress published Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979, introducing the “Four Principles” of medical ethics: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice.1 They argued that “best” treatment depends on patient preferences and applied to all cultures and societies. These principles were… Read more

  • Gangrene, history, and war

    Among the many afflictions that have plagued soldiers in war, gangrene has been one of the most devastating and feared. Caused by the death of tissue because of lack of blood supply or infection, gangrene has haunted military campaigns since antiquity. Hippocrates described the condition,… Read more

  • Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829): Pioneer of evolutionary thought

    The French naturalist and biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was one of the earliest proponents of the evolutionary theory. Born in 1744 into an aristocratic family in Bazentin-le-Petit, Picardy, he initially pursued a military career but following a severe illness turned to zoology and botany. By the… Read more

  • Early observations of the pulse

    JMS PearceHull, England Over the centuries, various devices bearing names now unfamiliar (Clepsydra, water clock, pulsilogium, Sphygmologia, Pulse Watch) were used to measure the pulse.The examination of the pulse to assist in diagnosis and prognosis dates back to ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese physicians. Because… Read more