Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Review of Health Humanities in Postgraduate Medical Education: A Handbook to the Heart of Medicine

  • Book review: Meeting the Challenge: Top Women in Science

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Women have long faced difficulties in acceptance to scientific fields. Science today remains male-dominated, but there are more examples of brilliant female scientists who have broken through the so-called glass ceiling. In her preface to Meeting the Challenge, Magdolna Hargittai… Read more

  • Pharaoh’s proctologist: The Shepherd of the Rectum

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Ancient Egyptian medicine was based on religion, magic, and specific conceptions of human anatomy and physiology. The human body was believed to contain twenty-two “channels” (called metu) that carried blood, air, water, urine, mucus, semen, and bodily waste. These channels were arteries,… Read more

  • Jobber

    Eli Daniel EhrenpreisSkokie, Illinois, United States One who performs odd jobs or piece work; a derogatory term for a wrestler who is booked to lose a match. “Thank you for seeing us.” “Of course, that’s what I do.” Her son sits quietly, holding a small toy… Read more

  • Look what they’ve done to my brain: Einstein’s last wish ignored

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “…his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.”– Bob Dylan, “License to Kill” Albert Einstein (1879–1955) is considered to be one of the most influential scientists of all time. His childhood, though, was not very promising. He did not speak until he… Read more

  • Milk in medicine

    The mammary glands are believed to have originated as glands in the skin of synapsids. These were the predecessors of mammals some 300 million years ago, and the function of their skin glands was to provide moisture for the eggs they were laying. When mammals… Read more

  • Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588)

    To the twentieth century tourist, the name Zwinger brings to mind the beautiful palace built in Dresden in 1709 by King Augustus the Strong of Saxony. In German, Zwinger means an open area between two surrounding walls built to defend a city. But none of… Read more

  • Historical and modern diagnoses of Darwin’s chronic illness

    Stephen KentWarrington, United Kingdom Introduction Charles Darwin has been the subject of intense study over the last 140 years, not only because of his publication of The Origin of Species through Natural Selection, but also because his extensive correspondence gives a clear insight into the… Read more

  • Quinine and global health

    Diego AndradeStalin Santiago CeliQuito, Ecuador Quinine is considered to be one of the most important medical discoveries historically, as it marked the first successful use of a chemical compound to treat malaria. Malaria is an acute febrile disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted… Read more

  • Thomas Dover, physician and entrepreneur (1660–1742)

    Oh, Dover was a pirate and he sailed the Spanish MainA hacking cough convulsed him and he had agonizing pain.So he mixed himself a powder, which he liked more and more.Ipecac and opium and K2SO4 1 Thomas Dover was an English physician who in 1732… Read more

  • Down’s syndrome

    JMS PearceHull, England Amongst the residents he attended at Earlswood Asylum for Idiots in Redhill, Surrey, John Langdon Down in 1865 began to use an anthropological classification. He identified a group of patients who were mentally delayed and showed a remarkably similar, but previously unrecognized… Read more

  • Book review: Life Unseen: A Story of Blindness

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom In her new book, Selina Mills, an award-winning journalist who is legally blind, takes us on a journey through the cultural history of visual impairment and blindness. It is both informative and empowering, weaving together research and the author’s personal… Read more

  • What can the candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) do?

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “[N]o one has stepped forward to observe the candiru’s life cycle in situ.”– William Burroughs, Naked Lunch Humans, like other animals, are subject to infections, infestations, colonization, and invasion by a wide variety of organisms. We are preyed on by viruses, bacteria,… Read more