Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Menelik II

  • 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

  • Sewing for surgeons

    Evelyn LeeWinston-Salem, North Carolina, United States It started with my mother’s simple question the summer after my freshman year of college: “Want to take a sewing class with me?” Initially, I said no. As a pre-medical student, I felt I needed to spend my summer… Read more

  • Fractured vision: The influence of early medical imaging on the Cubism movement

    Jen HeVivian McAlisterLondon, Ontario, Canada The influence of art on medicine has been emphasized—it separates a physician with clinical acumen from a scholar with medical knowledge, as well as man from machine. Less frequently explored is the historic role that medicine and its innovations have… Read more

  • The canon’s vision

    Óscar Lamas FilgueiraValencia, Spain In medicine, we rely on images every day—photographs, X‑rays, scans—that reveal truths our eyes alone cannot grasp. But centuries ago, physicians and healers had no such tools. Their understanding of illness had to be drawn from observation, testimony, and sometimes, from… Read more