Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Rush Medical College

  • Nicholas Senn, the great master of abdominal surgery

    Photo of Nicholas Senn. From A group of distinguished physicians and surgeons of Chicago… by F.M. Sperry. 1904. Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. Nicholas Senn was a man with an extraordinary capacity for work, an innovator, always trying new methods, even new experiments that he first conducted on himself. Born in 1844 in St. Gaul, Switzerland,…

  • Potts and Pott

    John Raffensperger Fort Meyer, Florida, United States   Portrait of Percivall Pott by George Romney, unsigned, 1788. From the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London. Willis Potts and Percival Pott were both highly skilled surgeons, prolific authors, and contributed to the surgical care of children.   Percival Pott (1714–1788) Percival Pott, at age fifteen,…

  • Alice Hamilton: Physician and scientist of the dangerous trades

    Anne Jacobson Oak Park, Illinois, United States   Alice Hamilton in 1919 It is a gritty, frozen day in winter-weary Chicago, one that does little to inspire action; perhaps least of all a frigid walk around the salty, potholed neighborhood. In a month or two a lunchtime walk would be a welcome idea; university students…

  • The founding of Rush Medical College

    Joseph deBettencourt Chicago, Illinois, United States   Act I: Dr. Daniel Brainard Figure 1. Cover of Brainard’s introductory lecture given at the first day of class, December 4, 1843 Beneath the impressive shadow of Notre Dame, a young American cut a path through the winding cobblestone maze of the Île de la Cité to the…

  • Christian Fenger (1840-1902)

    Danish born Christian Fenger practiced pathology and surgery in Chicago over a century ago and made such an impact on education that a public school in his adopted city is still named after him. As a young man he studied medicine in Copenhagen, completed his internship there, served in the 1865 war against Germany, and…

  • Elizabeth Blackwell, MD

    JMS Pearce East Yorkshire, England   Figure 1 Although Elizabeth Blackwell was portrayed on an 18 cent US stamp in 1974, curiously this was over a century after she graduated in medicine (Figure 1). Many remain unaware of her remarkable story as the first female Anglo-American physician, campaigner, and medical suffragette (Figure 2). [i] She…

  • James Bryan Herrick

    Philip R. Liebson Chicago, Illinois, United States   James B. Herrick (1861–1954) Each year the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology honors a physician “whose scientific achievements have contributed profoundly to the advancement and practice of clinical cardiology.” This award is named after the physician James B. Herrick (1861-1954) who, within a two-year period,…