Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Pain Treatment Center at Stroger Hospital

  • Gardens: Living pharmacies

    The connection between medicine and gardens runs deep. Gardens have long served as places of beauty and serenity and also as living pharmacies where healing plants were cultivated with care. This relationship between horticulture and healing represents one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring partnerships.… Read more

  • Dingler’s Panama tragedy

    Enrique Chaves-CarballoKansas City, Kansas, United States According to David McCullough, author of best-seller The Path Between the Seas, Jules Isidore Dingler “was not impressive-looking…he was short and bald…had small round shoulders, a soft, round face, soft blue eyes, and a drooping, mahogany-colored mustache….The appearance suggested… Read more

  • Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples: Do they represent facial paralysis or not?

    Peter De SmetNijmegen, Netherlands Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples have been interpreted time and again as representations of facial paralysis in the biomedical literature.1-8 Among the arguments in favor of this view is that otitis media once was a health concern in Alaska and… Read more

  • Crocodiles in medicine   

    In ancient times Egyptian doctors used crocodile dung as contraceptive or remedy for skin diseases and prescribed crocodile fat to treat burns and prevent baldness. In China traditional physicians recommended eating crocodile meat and organs for respiratory ailments and fevers, and African tribal healers prescribed… Read more

  • Wine in disease and health

    In ancient times The history of wine as medicine dates to ancient Egypt and its Ebers Papyrus (circa 1550 BCE), which mentions mixing wine with herbs as an antiseptic and a vehicle for delivering medicines. Physicians in Mesopotamia used wine to dissolve and administer drugs,… Read more

  • A rare case report: Near amputation of a leg from a falling book

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Traumatic injuries are common, resulting from war, natural disasters, workplace mishaps, accidents, or sports. But severe bodily damage occurring in a library? In 1359, the famous Italian poet, humanist, and philosopher from Arezzo, Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), was reading a book in his… Read more

  • Edvard Munch: Medical portraits

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States The name Edvard Munch usually recalls his masterful painting titled The Scream (fig. 1). This iconic image from 1893 depicts a moody landscape inhabited by a ghostlike, androgynous, wispy figure, facing if not confronting the viewer. Elongated hands frame the… Read more

  • David Paton, the flying eye surgeon

    Dr. David Paton, who died April 3, 2025 at age 93, is remembered for his efforts to make modern eye care and technology available worldwide. Born in Baltimore on August 16, 1930, he spent much of his childhood in New York City, where his father… Read more

  • Chicago medicine, then and now

    In the mid-19th century, Chicago was a city battling for survival against serious public health threats. Poor sanitation and contaminated water sources fueled devastating outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and smallpox. Mortality rates were high. Early healthcare was rudimentary; formal medical training was not always required; and… Read more

  • Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medicine

    The Ayurveda is the world’s oldest healing systems in the world.. Its name comes from the Sanskrit “Ayur,” meaning life, and “Veda,” meaning knowledge. Emerging from the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2600–1900 BCE) and attaining its most developed form in the first millennium BCE, it… Read more

  • Ancient Chinese medicine

    Chinese medicine represents one of the oldest systems in history. It views the human body as an integrated whole where physical health affects mental wellbeing while requiring environmental balance. The core principle of Chinese medicine includes the vital energy called qi (pronounced “chee”) which flows… Read more

  • The bridge on the Drina: A literary and historical monument

    Ivo Andrić’s The Bridge on the Drina (originally Na Drini ćuprija), published in 1945, is a monumental novel that spans over four centuries of Balkan history, using the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad as both a literal and symbolic centerpiece. Awarded the Nobel Prize… Read more