Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Margaret Edson

  • Siberia medical

    Siberia is a vast expanse of forests, tundra, and remote settlements that covers 5.1 million square miles of land and stretches from the Urals to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the southern steppes. It encompasses roughly 77 percent of Russia’s territory but remains… Read more

  • The great hospitals of Paris

    Few cities have shaped Western civilization as profoundly as Paris, the “city of light”. For over 500 years, until the mid-twentieth century, Paris was the undisputed center of European culture, encompassing art, literature, and philosophy. Historians trace its early history to 451 CE, when Saint… Read more

  • Early descriptions of polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis

    JMS PearceHull, England The accurate depiction of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) in the 1940s is relatively recent. By contrast, its close relative giant cell arteritis (GCA) was clearly described in 1890. Their early descriptions were separate and the recognition of their overlap did not appear until… Read more

  • The enduring legacy of William Stewart Halsted

    Michael NeffDallas, TexasMariam BanoubJulius BonelloPeoria, Illinois Late at night, nearly as exhausted with worry as the patient suffering severe abdominal pain before him, William Halsted made an executive decision. “Mother,” he pleaded, “you have an infected gallbladder and you need an operation.” After more reassurance,… Read more

  • The history of medicine in Malaysia and Singapore

    The history of medicine in Malaysia and Singapore spans centuries of healing activities derived from indigenous traditions, colonial influences, and scientific advances. Long before the colonial era, local communities practiced herbal medicine using ingredients derived from the tropical rainforest’s flora, using methods passed down through… Read more

  • The London teaching medical schools

    London’s hospitals have played a key part in medical history. The earliest ones were not medical schools, but religious or charitable institutions established to serve the poor, infirm, and pilgrims. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, founded in 1123 by Rahere, an Augustinian monk and former courtier of… Read more

  • The air remembers

    Elizabeth CrowstonCavalier, North Dakota, United States In the grasp of the dawn, where your laughter once danced, The air remembers where you were, a tale of love glanced. I reach out for you but am greeted with raw emptiness, The air holds your shape, unreachable to me, in… Read more

  • Imhotep: Humanity’s great physician and polymath

    Brian O’DeaIllinois, United States Imhotep is regarded as one of history’s first polymaths, a man whose genius transcended disciplines. Few figures in the ancient world stand as tall as Imhotep. As vizier to the pharaoh Djoser of the third dynasty (c. 27th century BC), he… Read more

  • Why did Shakespeare never mention tobacco?

    Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States Tobacco was used in Elizabethan England to treat diseases and injuries, as well as for relaxation and social interactions. Why, then, did Shakespeare never mention tobacco in any of his plays, or even refer to its use? Tobacco grew only… Read more

  • A magnificent late seventeenth-century German pharmacy cabinet

    Christopher DuffinLondon, England Small, portable apothecary cabinets were once popular for household, travel, and campaign purposes, but few have survived from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Several are exhibited in German museums,1 including one spectacular example in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Münich. The cabinet represents… Read more

  • A brief history of fluorescein

    Vidhi NaikAberdeen, Scotland Fluorescein, a strikingly bright orange-yellow liquid, is an essential tool in ophthalmic practice. Its synthesis marked a pivotal moment in the intersection of chemistry and medicine. Created by Adolf von Baeyer, a Nobel prizewinning chemist, in 1871, fluorescein originated as a product… Read more

  • Hesiod: The creation of the world

    Even the most educated members of our generation who have read many of the ancient Greek classics may not be familiar with Hesiod’s works, the Theogony and the Works and Days. Written at about the same time as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad (around 700 BCE),… Read more