Summer 2013 - Hektoen International

Madness at the opera

January 30, 2017

Joan Sutherland in Lucia di Lammermoor It is ironic and tragic that Gaetano Donizetti, author of the most famous mad scenes in the history of opera, should himself have died in a state of utter madness from what has been described “as the most terrible of all brain diseases.”1 In two of his operas, […]

John Wesley: Amateur physician and health crusader

January 30, 2017

Paul Dakin London, United Kingdom Portrait of John Wesley John Wesley was an 18th century Anglican priest, Fellow of Lincoln College and Oxford don, with an intellect and energy that resulted in over 400 publications and the riding of a quarter of a million miles to preach forty thousand sermons.1 The movement he reluctantly […]

Mark Hanna’s knees and the Panama Canal

January 30, 2017

Michael Ellman Chicago, Illinois, USA Aficionados of the history of the Panama Canal know that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Nicaragua was to be the site for the “American” inter-oceanic canal. A Nicaraguan canal would be hundreds of miles closer to ports in the Gulf […]

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?: Erzsébet Báthory and the curative power of blood in medieval Europe

January 30, 2017

Joanna Smolenski New York, United States If the body is seen either as enclosed and filled with blood, or as vulnerable and bleeding, then blood can also only be interpreted either as life (when it fills the intact body) or as death (when it has left the body). (Bildhauer 2006: 5) In medieval Europe, […]

Albert Schweitzer: physician philosopher

January 29, 2017

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Albert Schweitzer Helen Kiddell, 1950–1959 Wellcome Library, London, England In a different world Albert Schweitzer would have been a saint, painted by Uccello or Bellini with angels in the desert, […]

Medical education in medieval Islam

January 29, 2017

Sara Ali Gainsville, Florida, United States Al-Adudi Hospital, Baghdad, 9th century The period between the 5th to the 15th century, known in Europe as the Dark Ages, was characterized in the Middle East and the Arab world by the rise of great civilizations. It was built by people of differing religions and ethnicities, Muslims […]

The benefit of literature to a medical student

January 29, 2017

Martin Conwill United Kingdom In a letter to Benjamin Bailey in 1817, John Keats, who only one year prior was a medical student himself, wrote: “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination – what the imagination sees as beauty must be truth.”1 This proclamation […]

Abraham Flexner: his life and legacy

January 29, 2017

M. Saleem Seyal Louisville, Kentucky, USA O, Abraham Flexner! . . . We have fought with you on minor points, have alternately admired and disliked you, have applauded you for your wisdom and detested you for opinionatedness. But in just retrospect, layman as you are, we hail you as the father . . . […]

In defense of good pimping: the Socratic method

January 29, 2017

Gregory M Marcus San Francisco, California, USA Socrates was executed for berating ancient Athenians with questions in order to test their knowledge. I try to keep this in mind when badgering trainees for the same purpose. Of course, questioning to the point of what is maybe best described as “learner discomfort” is no longer […]

The membership examination—then

January 29, 2017

The examination for membership in the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) is considered to be the British counterpart of the examination for the American Board of Internal Medicine. Its origins, however, are more venerable, being based on a royal charter granted by Henry VIII in 1518. It may also be safely assumed that its format […]