Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2015

  • “Heard it through the grapevine”: The black barbershop as a source of health information

    Joyce Balls-BerryLea DacyRochester, Minnesota, USAJames BallsSt. Louis, Missouri, USA Barbering is an ancient profession and early records indicate that barbers played a role as community leaders. Elevated almost to the role of priests or medicine men, they typically offered bloodletting, tooth extraction, cauterization, and tonsorial surgery as well as grooming.1 As medicine advanced, they did…

  • Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians and their fees

    Barry I. HoffbrandLondon, United Kingdom Since Roman times the means of payment for services rendered defined the place certain groups held in society. Thus the Roman historian Tacitus, writing in his Annals (c. AD 113), refers to a law of 210 BC stating that the services of persons exercising the liberal arts (such as philosophers,…

  • Le Petit Journal, clowns & children in hospital in Victorian London

    Anthony RyanGrace NevilleCork, Ireland Le Petit Journal (LPJ) was a Parisian newspaper published from 1863 to 1944, with a circulation of over a million copies at the height of its popularity in the 1890s when it had a corresponding impact on a large swathe of the newly literate French population of the time.1 As well…

  • Oliver Murray Wrong: A giant in nephrology

    Todd Ing Professor Oliver Wrong (Figure 1), a giant in renal medicine, passed away on February 24, 2012. At the age of 87, his death should not, perhaps, have seemed untimely and shocking. But Oliver remained intellectually productive until the very end, working to expand science’s understanding of how the body regulates fluid, salt and…

  • An illuminating experience in my practice

    Gian Battista DanziPietra Ligure, Italy Aevo rarissima nostro Simplicitas(Simplicity is very rare these days)-Ovid, Ars amatoria I, 241-242 Some five years ago, I had the privilege of treating M.A., a visionary and restless soul who used to dabble in writing, and who had been admitted to my Cardiology Division because of an acute coronary syndrome.…

  • Last Chemo

    Paul Perilli Today’s the day. The last IV drip of oxaliplatin into my arm. The fifth of five sessions done at three week intervals. There’s still the pills called capecetibine to take for two more weeks, but those aren’t as bothersome or debilitating as the fearsome drip. The pills merely dry the skin on my…

  • Three Visits

    Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece Prelude She rings at the recommendation of a colleague who knows my interest in lung cancer and palliative care. “It is about my father, doctor.” I suggest that she brings me his films and tests for a briefing before I get to meet him. We arrange an appointment, and she comes with…

  • Problems with medical records

    George Dunea When Lawrence Weed first unveiled his vision for reforming medical record documentation, he unleashed a revolution that captivated the imagination of the medical public but may also have brought about unintended consequences from which we suffer even today. Dr. Weed first published his new method in 1967.1 A few years later, in 1972,…

  • Theodore de Mayerne: Prince of all doctors

    Sir Theodore de Mayerne (1573–1655) was a prominent physician who attended on the kings of England and France, their queens, and countless distinguished personages coming from all parts of Europe. He had a large practice in Paris and in England. Between 1620 and 1630 he was at the height of his medical fame, and in…

  • Edward Leicester Atkinson: Parasitologist, explorer, war hero

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States Edward Leicester Atkinson (1881–1929)—known to the members of the Terra Nova Expedition as “Atch”—was senior expedition surgeon of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913. Born in the West Indies to European parents, he studied medicine at St. Thomas Hospital in London. Shortly after joining the Royal Navy, he applied for…