Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: scientist

  • Francis Bacon’s natural philosophy and medicine

    JMS PearceHull, England Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced.– Alexander Pope, 1741 The early seventeenth century was a time when natural philosophy, the precursor of modern science, was advanced dramatically by names still famous 300 years later. Philosophy and natural philosophy were intimately bound concepts, both inchoate,…

  • Thomas Young MD FRS (1773-1829): “The Last Man Who Knew Everything.”

    JMS PearceEast Yorks, UK It is impossible to place precisely Thomas Young (Fig 1) into any professional class. He was both physician and scientist, renowned for an astonishing range of theories and discoveries in optics, physics, physiology, hieroglyphics, and medicine. His sundry contributions were profound, original, and ingenious; he has with good reason been likened…

  • Ernest Henry Starling and the birth of English Physiology

    JMS Pearce Hull, England Science has only one language, quantity, and only one argument, the experiment-EH Starling Ernest Henry Starling (1866-1927) (Fig 1) was an outstanding figure in the development of physiology whose prolific contributions made him one of the foremost scientists of his time. He was born on 17 April 1866 at 2 Barnsbury Square,…

  • Jöns Jacob Berzelius: physician, scientist, and globetrotter

    Frank WollheimSweden Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848) was not only the enigmatic Swedish chemist of his time but also an accomplished medical doctor, active humanitarian, co-founder of the Karolinska Institute, and secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for thirty years. He also mastered the pen, leaving 7000 letters, several books, diaries, and an autobiography.1…