Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Josephinum Medical Museum

  • Hilary Koprowski and the polio vaccine

    Eugene KucharzKatowice, Poland Hilary Koprowski (Fig. 1) was born on December 5, 1916, in Warsaw, Poland. At the age of five, he was already playing the piano, and at the age of twelve, began studying at the Warsaw Conservatory of Music. He graduated from Mikołaj… Read more

  • The strange death of Nana

    Nicolas RoblesBadajoz, Spain “Nana was all covered with fine hair; a russet made her body velvety…”—Emile Zola, Nana The French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902), considered the leading representative of literary naturalism in his time,1 observed people and contemporary events in his novels. Zola never ceased… Read more

  • Inns or coffee houses?

    JMS PearceHull, England Humans throughout history have resorted to drugs to stimulate or tranquilize their moods and feelings. Most were of herbal origin, the choice determined by their effects, local availability, and trading. But social factors and politics also played a part. Soon after the… Read more

  • The death of Raphael

    The famous High Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio was working at the court of Pope Julius II when he developed an acute illness that killed him within fifteen days. His body was publicly displayed and mourned in the Vatican, and he was buried in the Pantheon,… Read more

  • Composing incoordination: The stumbling passages in J.S. Bach’s Flute Partita

    Stephen MartinThailand Program music is composed to give a sense of a scene or story. While Mozart in the late 1700s occasionally played tricks for laughs, such as suddenly missing bars and expected rhythms, he stuck to writing straight musical beauty for instrumental works. His… Read more

  • Arrowsmith at 100 years

    George ChristopherMichigan, United States Sinclair Lewis’ novel Arrowsmith (1925) is a biography of the fictional physician Martin Arrowsmith that chronicles his life from childhood through the transitions of his medical career. The novel spans the protagonist’s years in medical school and subsequent roles as a… Read more

  • Thomas Hume’s recollections of the public execution of William Burke

    Daniel PatroneOneonta, New York, United States In the early nineteenth century, the rapid advancement of anatomical science created a surging demand for human cadavers. Given the woefully inadequate legal supply of cadavers, this demand fueled the rise of a lucrative but illicit industry of graverobbers… Read more

  • Dr. Michael Perl: Uncle Mouse’s war and other stories

    Michael AbramsonMelbourne, Australia Michael Mathias Perl was born in Melbourne, Australia on 22 May 1903, the first child of Jacob and Elizabeth Perl. He was named after his grandfather who had been born in Chodziessen, Prussia, and arrived in Port Phillip aboard the Arabian in… Read more

  • Lord Melbourne (1779–1848): Mentor of Queen Victoria

    Lord William Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s well-known prime minister, descended from the great landed aristocracy that had ruled Great Britain for most of the eighteenth century. Some of their members had sat in Parliament for many years, including one who never opened his mouth during his… Read more

  • The deaths of the Romantic poets

    The deaths of John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, all occurring within five years of each other, form a tragic trilogy in the history of English Romantic poetry. Each died young, and their ends reflect the turbulence, idealism, and fragility that marked their… Read more

  • József Antall: Hungarian medical historian and political leader

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England In the Taban region of Budapest, at the foot of the castle district of the city outside the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History, stands a statue of József Antall, a famous medical historian who became the first democratically elected Prime Minister… Read more

  • What the elders fed us

    Caleb WamangaKakamega, Kenya Before the rain starts, the vine creeps across the yard. Mboga ya kienyeji (traditional vegetable), the green leaf that rounded off a meal, was what we called them. It is a gift that is never announced, never wrapped, but always there when… Read more