Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Maimonides

  • Princes of Physicians: Avicenna and Maimonides

    James MarcumWaco, Texas, United States Islamic and Jewish scholars, such as Al-Kindi (801–873 CE), Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (c. 838 – c. 870 CE), Al-Razi (865–925 CE), Al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE), and Ibn-Rushd or Averroes (1126–1198 CE), among others, had a major impact on western Medieval medicine.1 Two of the most prominent scholars, however, are…

  • Improving health and saving lives: The unusual relationship of religion on sports and health

    Ira D. GlickDanielle KamisStanford, California, United StatesNeil EisenbergSan Francisco, California, United States Religion has always had a powerful effect on culture. As such, it is surprising that there has been scant literature on the effect of religious beliefs and teachings on participation in sports and the subsequent effect on individual health. The beliefs, guidelines, advice,…

  • Medical and literary coupling

    Stephen FinnSouth Africa (To be read aloud, with gusto and with a strong beat) When you’re so busy in the middle of a ward,Or you’re doing the usual and feeling quite bored,Just think of your fellows who healed the sick,So many doctors, and what’d give them a kick. Denizens of medicine they all certainly were,But…

  • The most enduring fictional character in literature, Sherlock Holmes, created by a physician

    Marshall LichtmanRochester, New York, United States My colleague and friend, Professor Seymour I. Schwartz, a distinguished surgeon and academician, has chronicled the careers of over 100 physicians who were notable writers in his monograph From Medicine to Manuscript: Doctors with a Literary Legacy.1 These physician-writers ranged from Maimonides to John Locke to John Keats to…

  • Cadavers for dissection

    Mary V. SeemanToronto, Ontario, Canada At the beginning of the twentieth century, medical students in Europe found it very difficult to obtain what at the time was considered essential: adequate numbers of cadavers for an anatomy class. Morgues permitted access to unclaimed corpses, but there were never enough. In every medical school in Europe, there…