Tag: Spring 2013
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Sir James Mackenzie (1853–1925)
James Mackenzie was a prominent and highly influential British physician who made great contributions to the understanding of cardiac diseases, especially of atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. He was “at heart” a generalist, having spent 28 years as a general practitioner and after a decade in London returning to his roots in Scotland to study…
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Jean Corvisart: Napoleon’s physician
An outstanding diagnostician and pioneer in cardiology, Jean Nicolas Corvisart de Marets has been called the founder of French clinical medicine. He advocated the careful clinical examination of the heart, described syndromes and signs of heart disease that to this day still bear his name, and popularized percussion of the chest as a diagnostic tool,…
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William Withering and the foxglove
In 1785 William Withering, physician and botanist in Birmingham, England, wrote a book describing how for ten years he had used an extract of foxglove to treat patients afflicted with swollen legs and abdomen. He said he had often been urged to write on this subject and had been rather diffident about it, feeling unqualified…
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Auscultation
Daly WalkerBoca Grande, Florida, United States In the hospital’s x-ray department, Dad and I entered a small room with a wall of lighted boxes. A man with dyed reddish hair sat, sipping at a mug of coffee and reading a magazine called The American Spectator. “Harry,” Dad said. “Meet my son, Bud. Bud, this is…
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Van Orley – Physician in Brussels
Joris van Zelle (1491–1567) was physician of the city of Brussels from 1522–61, practicing at St. John’s Hospital. In this 1519 painting by Flemish artist Bernard van Orley, he is shown in his library at age 28, surrounded by elegantly bound books, wearing a felt hat and a fur-lined coat. He is taking notes, and…
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The perfection of illness
Zohaib AhmadPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States It is often but little appreciated that the creative and the consummate can be conceived in the throes of disease. The process of being ill can change people, not only through the mental stress, but also through the neurological changes inherent in neurodegenerative diseases such as in Alzheimer’s disease, where…
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Broken Heart
Judy Schaefer Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA Broken Heart You have opened up my heartand now sponge mop the rivets of red blood And count each sponge as testimony to the pain.You had talked of a bypassexits and egress, yieldI imagine a busy expressway whirling around all of St. Louisup to Chicago and down to MemphisI wonder…
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Leonardo’s heart
Larry ZaroffPalo Alto, California, United States The surgeon comes to the operating room at seven a.m. for her eight o’clock mitral valve repair. A warm-up. Before any heart operation she always checks the elephants in the room. At that early hour, alone with her elephants, she feels closely connected to them, her better hands. An…