Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Pasteur

  • Peter Panum and the “geography of disease”

    Kathryne Dycus Madrid, Spain   Peter Panum. Scan from P. Hansens “Illustreret Dansk Litteraturhistorie”, anden meget forøgede udgave, 2. bind, 1902. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia. In 1846, the Faroe Islands experienced an outbreak of measles, the likes of which had not been seen in sixty-five years. The Danish government called upon a newly graduated physician,…

  • Tales from the crypt: The mosaic symbolism of Louis Pasteur’s tomb

    Abigail Cline Augusta, Georgia, United States   Louis Pasteur’s tomb at the Pasteur Institute Hidden behind the Montparnasse Railway Station is the elegant brick and stone building of the Pasteur Institute. Since its opening in 1887, the Pasteur Institute has been on the front line in the battle against infectious disease. Consisting of research departments…

  • Chance in the origins of antibiotics

    William Kingston Dublin, Ireland   The discovery of antibiotics has been described as the “domestication of microorganisms” and ranks in importance with the domestication of animals as part of settled agriculture about 10,000 years ago. It depends upon antagonism between bacteria, which had been noticed as early as 1874, and Pasteur commented then that if…