Tag: Review of Health Humanities in Postgraduate Medical Education: A Handbook to the Heart of Medicine
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Ruggero Oddi: Brilliant physician and victim of gaslighting by the Congo Free State
Eli EhrenpreisSkokie, Illinois, United States When Ruggero Oddi (1864–1913) was a medical student at the University of Bologna, he performed studies detailing the physiology of the biliary sphincter. This work became Oddi’s legacy, setting the stage for modern biliary and pancreatic clinical science. Without Oddi’s… Read more
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A brief history of ulcerative colitis
Parnita KesarSouth Carolina, United States The symptoms of ulcerative colitis have been documented since the eighteenth century. From 1745, there is evidence that Prince Charles, the Young Pretender to the English crown, had symptoms consistent with the condition we now know as ulcerative colitis. He… Read more
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Abraham de Balmes ben Meir, Jewish Italian physician and polymath
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Abraham de Balmes ben Meir (c. 1460–1523) was a Jewish physician and polymath from the baroque Italian city of Lecce in the south of Italy, where his grandfather had served as personal physician to King Ferdinand I of Naples. He studied… Read more
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King Wamba’s poisoning with cytisine
Nicolas Roberto RoblesBadajoz, Spain In AD 409, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Suevi and the Vandals (of Germanic stock) and the Alans (of Asian origin). The Visigoths came next. They had entered into an alliance with imperial Rome with the purpose of ejecting… Read more
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Conflict about the clitoris: Colombo versus Fallopio
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”– Oscar Wilde The clitoris, a female genital structure anatomically homologous to the penis, was known to the ancients. In 540 BC, the Greek Hipponax made one of the earliest references to it. It was… Read more
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Books, bangles, and bravado
Jill KarNew Delhi, India Anandibai Joshee (Anandi) set sail from India at the age of eighteen. Bartering her bangles for books, she traded convention for an education, which was considered shameful in nineteenth-century India.1 In doing so, she was the first Indian woman to become… Read more
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A time to live and a time to die
Amera HassanMinneapolis, Minnesota “Well to be honest, doc, I don’t quite care whether I do live or die.” He said it so nonchalantly and he was smiling too, a crow-footed wrinkle on either side of his eyes. When this patient was first admitted to the… Read more
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Sea sick: Naval surgery and sanitation in eighteenth-century Britain
Melissa YeoOntario, Canada Scurvy, yellow fever, and typhus were considered “the three Great Killers of seamen.”1 Hygiene and diet were very poor aboard eighteenth-century sailing vessels, as ships were often overstocked with men to account for ensuing losses while at sea.2 The sanitation on board these… Read more
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The origins of the word “hospital”
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “hospital” is derived from the Old French “ospital,” meaning hostel, shelter, lodging, or shelter for the needy. The origin can be traced to the Latin “hospitale” and persists in the modern French “hôpital.”… Read more
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Further observations on the centenary of Vegemite
Morris OdellMelbourne, Australia The articles by doctors James Franklin and George Dunea on Vegemite and Marmite1,2 certainly struck a chord with me. Their observation that Vegemite is a symbol of Australia’s national identity barely does justice to its place in Australian culture and ethos. Although… Read more
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Posthumous reproduction
Ian CookeSheffield, England Family structures ensure that one’s genes are passed down through generations, but that does not always go according to plan. The opportunity may not arise because childhood or adolescent disease, notably cancer but also infections or trauma, may supervene. In 1996, I… Read more
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Hadrian and Frank’s sign
Vittoria SabatiniFlorence, Italy It is difficult to remain an emperor in the presence of a physician, and difficult even to keep one’s essential quality as man. The professional eye saw in me only a mass of humors, a sorry mixture of blood and lymph. This… Read more