Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: kidney stones

  • John Douglas of the “high” stone operation

    John Douglas was born in 1675 in Baads near Edinburgh. He had six brothers, the most famous being the anatomist James Douglas, remembered eponymously for describing the Pouch of Douglas (an extension of the peritoneal cavity into the pelvis). Another brother, Walter, served from 1711 to 1714 as governor general of the Leeward Islands, where…

  • The iron crab

    Sean VarnerBaltimore, Maryland, United States You only live twice:Once when you are bornAnd once when you look death in the face.— Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice In 1955 the thriller writer Ian Fleming traveled to Istanbul for an Interpol conference, which at first he found “spectacularly dull.”1 This was to change dramatically on the…