Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Nicolas Poussin

  • The Plague of Athens

    Nobody knows what the plague of Athens was. Was it bubonic plague? Was it a viral infection? Speculations have abounded for centuries.   Plague in an Ancient City (Plague of Athens), c.1652-1654 Michiel Sweerts In the first days of summer the Lacedemonians and their allies sat down and laid waste the country. Not many days…

  • On a miraculous birth

     Frank Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, United States For all the odes that sing the advent of a new life, childbirth is a bloody, messy affair. Those of us who, by reason of our trade, observed it at close range know that it is also a scission, a brutal separation of two beings, during which life issues…