Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Oscar Wilde

  • Habsburg dynasty and progenia

    Bojana CokićZajecar, Serbia Oscar Wilde (1854–1900, Irish poet) once said that “LIFE IMITATES ART. However, much more often, ART IS THE ONE THAT IMITATES LIFE.”1,2 In PROGENIA (mandibular prognathism) there is a poor relationship between the upper and lower teeth, upper and lower jaws, or between the jaw and the teeth. The most severe form…

  • De Profundis: Oscar Wilde’s narrative of mental anguish

    Anthony ChesebroStony Brook, New York, United States “There is only one season, the season of sorrow.”1 Imprisoned for a relationship that was criminalized by the government of his time, in 1897 Oscar Wilde had spent two years in jail. Finally granted permission to write, over a period of three months he produced De Profundis, an…

  • Remembrance of things past

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom In these troubled times imposed by Covid-19, much attention has been paid to depression, stress, and complaints of enforced isolation and of longing for the old days—the “normal times.” In this and in other contexts, nostalgia is regarded as a normal sentiment with no implication of disease or illness. But…

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning—Isolation and the artist

    Elizabeth Lovett Colledge Jacksonville, Florida, United States Elizabeth Barrett Browning is perhaps best known for the poem “How do I Love Thee,” addressed to her husband Robert Browning, as well as their courtship, elopement, and subsequent years together in Europe. However, one might revisit her life and prolific work in light of the many years of…

  • A very Victorian drug

    Anita CookeNew Brunswick, Canada On February 14, 1862, the Daily News reported the “Death of a Lady from an Overdose of Laudanum.”1 Four nights earlier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti had discovered his wife, Lizzie, in a coma with an empty bottle of laudanum by her side. Despite efforts from doctors, she died a few hours later.…

  • Macdonald Critchley

    JMS PearceEast Yorks, England Macdonald Critchley was a neurologist of elegance and sophistication.1 He was pre-eminently a clinical investigator of disorders of higher mental functions, especially those relating to language. He was the author of many beautifully written scientific papers, books, and delightful personal reminiscences.2 Born in Bristol in February 1900, his childhood ability was…

  • Absinthe: The green fairy

    Nicolás Roberto RoblesBadajoz, Spain “After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”-Oscar Wilde Absinthe is a spirit with very high alcohol…

  • Literatim: Essays at the intersections of medicine and culture

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK In this interesting collection, medical historian Howard Markel has brought together his previously published essays from the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the PBS Newsletter into one volume. The collection of eighty pieces covers a wide range of topics that have interested Markel over…

  • Is history good for you? Pros and cons

    Pro “ . . . a page of history is worth a volume of logic.”– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”– George Santayana “A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass.”– Sioux proverb “[History is] a pact between the dead, the living, and…

  • A bit of irony: Sir William Wilde and Oscar Wilde

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States Early in the afternoon of November 30, 1900, thirty-six hours after he had lapsed into a coma, a man named Sebastian Melmoth died at the Hotel d’Alsace in the Rue des Beaux Art. His assumed name eluded few as to his true identity, Oscar Wilde. The cause of his…