Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: rocky face

  • Alexander von Humboldt, famous scientist and humanist

    Born in 1769 into an aristocratic family in Berlin, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the most influential scientists and explorers of the nineteenth century, renowned for his work in geography, natural history, meteorology, and ecology. After first studying at the Universities of Frankfurt on… Read more

  • Charles Dickens and his doctors

    Charles Dickens, one the greatest authors in the English language, featured in his novels medical doctors, students, and related professionals. They do not play an important role in his plots, but are interesting because they exemplify how medical practice was conducted two hundred years ago.… Read more

  • William Bradley Coley: Visionary or snake oil salesman?

    Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. William Bradley Coley graduated with a B.A. in the Classics from Yale College. He then taught Latin and Greek in Portland, Oregon, for two years before entering Harvard Medical School. After completing the three-year Harvard course in two years,… Read more

  • Hittite medicine

    Some 3,000 to 7,000 years BC there lived in southern Ukraine or perhaps northern Anatolia a people we now know as the Indo-Europeans.1,2 They were the ancestors of most of the linguistically related nations of Europe and Western Asia, and eventually they split into Eastern… Read more

  • Heroic surgeon: Noel Godfrey Chavasse (1884–1917)

    JMS PearceHull, England Britain can boast a variety of displays of memorial celebrations—regal, national, military, and personal—in an unrivalled blend of splendor and disciplined discretion. Of several decorations, symbolised by medals, the Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest of all military gallantry awards.* Only three… Read more

  • The modern drug treatment of hypertension

    1. Introduction The history of hypertensive therapy with drugs goes back to around 1900 or even earlier, when physicians began to prescribe a variety of medicines such as sodium thiocyanate, nitrites, alkaloids of ergot, pyrogens, rauwolfia, veratrum virile, barbiturates, bismuth, bromides, hexamethonium, or tetramethylammonium chloride.… Read more

  • The silent struggles of a healer

    Biplab AdhikariLouisville, Kentucky, United States A regular day, it’s time for work,News of a virus, where shadows lurk.No treatment, no vaccine, no known fix,Symptoms vague, it’s all in the mix. Don a mask, the silent plea,Will this new case find its way to me?At work,… Read more

  • Anatomical correlation of the bronze liver of Piacenza with fresh sheep livers

    Belle van RosmalenThomas van GulikAmsterdam, Netherlands The Palazzo Farnese in the town of Piacenza, Italy, houses an archaeological museum called the Musei Civici. Its collection includes an Etruscan model of a sheep’s liver cast in bronze, known as the Piacenza liver.1 (Fig 1) The Etruscans… Read more

  • Emperor Otto II, malaria, and aloe

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Otto II (AD 955–983) conquered the Saracens and quelled the invading Magyar menace. However, his ambitious reign abruptly ended, not in battle, but in bed. At the young age of twenty-eight, he departed from this world.… Read more

  • Mary Ann Bickerdyke

    Julius BonelloEmma RyanPeoria, Illinois, United States The colonel had had enough of her disrespect. He would consult his general about this nasty old woman. “I didn’t know we had any nasty old women in our Army,” General Sherman remarked. “Who might she be now?”  “I… Read more

  • Love potions and aphrodisiacs

    The ancient gods lived high atop Mount Olympus. They loved, quarreled, and meddled in human affairs. They had amongst them a goddess of love whom the Romans called Venus and the Greeks Aphrodite. In time, these names followed different trajectories. Venereal became what you get… Read more

  • “Dr. Jim” (Sir Leander Jameson): A hero and villain of the British Empire

    Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you……If you can meet with triumph and disasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;…Yours is the Earth and everything’s that’s in it,And—which… Read more