Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Royal Navy

  • Samuel Pepys: Stones and groans

      Samuel Pepys. Portrait by John Hayls, 1666. National Portrait Gallery, London. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. I polished up that handle so carefully That now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navy – HMS Pinafore, Gilbert and Sullivan   Introduction Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) did not polish doorknobs to rise in the world. He was…

  • Dr. AJ Cronin: Still persona non grata?

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Harry Fain, coal loader. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky. Russell Lee. September 1946. National Archives. Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. “I have written all I feel about the medical profession, its injustices, its hide-bound unscientific stubbornness . . . The horrors and inequities detailed…

  • Macdonald Critchley

    JMS Pearce East Yorks, England   Fig 1. Macdonald Critchley by Norman Hepple. Credit: National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH Arts. Source Macdonald Critchley was a neurologist of elegance and sophistication.1 He was pre-eminently a clinical investigator of disorders of higher mental functions, especially those relating to language. He was the author of many…

  • Blood relics and contemporary memory

    Robbie Porter Worcester, England   Basement room of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, where the Russian Imperial Family was executed. Investigator Nicholas Sokolov apparently recovered 13 drops of blood from here. Via Wikipedia. Public domain. In the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich there is an exhibit, carefully preserved in an environmentally conditioned case, which is…

  • Sydney Hospital

    Julie Gianakon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States    Sydney Hospital, from above In May of 1797, growing discontent among sailors of the Royal Navy erupted into the infamous Mutiny of the Nore. William Redfern was nineteen years old and the surgeon’s mate on board the HMS Standard.  Sympathetic to the sailors’ demands for better pay and…