Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Lancashire

  • Charles Harrison Blackley: the man who put the hay in hay fever

    Julian CraneWellington, New Zealand Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1980s, there has been a worldwide increase in the prevalence of allergic diseases, asthma, hay fever, and eczema. In the last twenty years the most notable manifestation of this trend has been the rapid rise in food allergy in children.1 Thirty years ago food…

  • Dr. Meadow’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy: The history and the controversy

    Nereida EsparzaChicago, Illinois, United States Munchausen syndrome is a severe psychiatric disorder described in the DSM-IV. In 1951 Dr. Richard Asher named the illness after Baron Munchausen (full name Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen, 1720–1797).1 The German-born baron served in the Russian army until 1750. On his return from the army he was known…