Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2012

  • The last illness of King Edward VI (1537–1553)

    Son of Henry VIII and of his third wife Jane Seymour, Edward became king of England at the age of nine and reigned for only a little over six years. Because of the importance of having a male heir, his father took every precaution to preserve him from any contagion and especially from contact with…

  • Surgery, note by note: Marin Marais’ “Tableau de l’Opération de la Taille”

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States How has medicine been depicted in music? Examples from the operatic stage come to mind: tuberculosis in Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s La Bohème; madness or delirium in the mad scene in Donizetti’s Lucia Da Lammermoor and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene in Verdi’s Macbeth. It is harder to find…

  • The forgotten Darwin

    JMS PearceHull, United Kingdom That Erasmus Darwin MD., FRS. (1731–1802) was overshadowed, often forgotten, is not surprising when one considers the well-deserved fame and importance of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Stephen Jay Gould observed in The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. 2002):  “‘precursoritis’ is the bane of historiography.” Though no “bane of historiography,” Erasmus…

  • Captain Scott’s brave and loyal assistant: Petty Officer Edgar Evans

    Isobel P. WilliamsRoyal College Physicians, London, England, United Kingdom Edgar Evans (1876–1912), later one of the first British veterans of Antarctic exploration, spent his early years as a native of Rhosili, a little village on the beautiful Gower Peninsula in South Wales. One of twelve children, he had few educational opportunities. However as a member…

  • A student’s call for mentorship

    Stephanie GrachChicago, Illinois, United States The Hippocratic Oath is surprisingly short in length given its indisputable importance to the medical community over the past 2,000 years. Its rules—such as “I will use my power to help the sick to the best of my ability and judgment” and “I will be chaste and religious in my…

  • A life cut short

    Joshua BaruBenjamin MbaChicago, Illinois, USA The Schwartz Center Rounds program provides a forum for an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental case-based discussion of the emotional and interpersonal underpinnings of healthcare providers. The following is a description of a recent Schwartz Center Rounds session at Cook County Hospital. The case. A 23-year-old Indian man was driving with his…

  • Sparing the living

    P. Ravi ShankarLalitpur, Nepal Krishna was dead. I was relaxing on the porch of my quarters next to the primary health center when Krishna’s relatives brought me the news of his demise. Though I was sad, I also felt a sense of relief. Krishna belonged to a poor family of agricultural workers eking out a…

  • The fallen leaf

    Chang-Wuk KangBaltimore, Maryland, United States As a consulting psychiatrist, my job is fairly straightforward. Often questions involve determining the appropriate DSM-IV diagnosis or medication to calm an agitated patient. However, this day I was asked to see a 42-year-old woman, and the only reason given for the consult was, “the patient is dying from end-stage…

  • Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

    Ramin SamSan Francisco, California, United States While Europe languished in the Middle Ages, the Islamic world sustained and contributed to the scientific and mathematic knowledge accumulated by the Greeks. One of the most influential of these scientists was Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, otherwise known as Rasis or Rhazes. Born in Rey (near present-day Teheran) in 865,…

  • The cutting edge

    Richard SpicerBristol, England The baby was going to be fine. The tumor was now in the lab, the blood loss was minimal, and it was now time to close the chest. Closing time always introduced a change of mood; everyone relaxed, and the conversation even became light-hearted. His registrar,1 Mark, and his house officer,2 Saskia,…