Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Middlesex Hospital

  • Lumbar puncture

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. Dominici Cotugno’s De Ischiade Nervosa, 1764. 1770. Access to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in life as an aid to diagnosis proved impossible until lumbar puncture. Galen of Pergamon (AD 130–200) failed to recognize CSF; he described a vaporous, not aqueous, humor that he called περιττώματα (residues) in the cerebral ventricles.…

  • Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man”

    JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom   Fig 1. The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Frederick Treves. As a specimen of humanity, Merrick was ignoble and repulsive; but the spirit of Merrick, if it can be seen in the form of the living, would assume the figure of an upstanding and heroic man .…

  • Campbell de Morgan (1811-1876)

    Bust of Campbell De Morgan, presented to the Middlesex Hospital by John Graham Lough Described as a man of great accomplishment and unusual ability, Campbell de Morgan was a surgeon and a professor at the Middlesex Hospital in London. His main interest was neoplasia, and he participated in the debate on whether cancer arises locally…