Tag: The King’s-Evil and sensory experience in Richard Wiseman’s Severall Chirurgicall Treatises
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Complicating leprosy in the late medieval West
Juliana MenegakisSt. Andrews, Scotland Starting in the 1990s, Demaitre, Rawcliffe, and Touati revived the study of medieval leprosy, countering the traditional view that lepers were excluded from mainstream society.1 Traditionalists argued that medieval Europeans were inspired by Leviticus, which instructs priests on how to examine… Read more
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Carriages in history and medicine
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel In Ezekiel 1:4-28 there is a reference to a big cloud with a strong wind and fire flashing from it. Inside the cloud, four wheels touched the ground, and all the wheels looked as if they were made from a clear,… Read more
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From bedside to bench: The discovery of calmodulinopathy
Göran WettrellLund, Sweden As a pediatrician specializing in pediatric cardiology, I met in 1982 a twelve-year-old-boy with syncope when playing football. He had four previous episodes of losing consciousness during physical activity and once during a fire alarm. His resting ECG was normal, but his… Read more
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A “semi-slaughter and a scandal of surgery”: The first documented tracheostomy in history
Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States Surgical tracheostomy has been known to humans for thousands of years. The ancient Hindu book of medicine, the Rig Veda, dating to approximately 2000 BC, discusses the healing of throat incisions; the ancient Egyptians may have been aware of the… Read more
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Portraits of William Hunter by Reynolds, Chamberlin, and Ramsay
Stephen MartinThailand The Hunterian in Glasgow University and The Royal Academy, London, have three portraits of the anatomist Dr William Hunter.1,2 They make a particularly interesting group with personalized, cryptic symbols and plain emblems of anatomy and the Enlightenment. Despite some discussion,3 their specific icons… Read more
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Chevalier Jackson, MD: Patient safety champion
Alan Jay SchwartzPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Docents guide and educate the visitors at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia while they view the vast array of exhibits. One exhibit in particular is valuable for its historical message. The Chevalier Jackson, MD, (1865–1958)… Read more
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The tragedy of the Shah of Shahs
The story of the last Shah began with his father, Reza Khan, a military commander who seized power in 1925 and established the Pahlavi dynasty. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ascended to the throne in 1941 during World War II; the British and Soviets forced… Read more
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Greeneland revealed
John BrooksCheshire, United Kingdom Whether or not bipolar disorder enhances artistic expression is a contentious topic.1 Graham Greene (1904–1991), a renowned twentieth-century author, believed that his illness was an essential part of the material of his novels.2 As a troubled teenager, he underwent psychoanalysis following… Read more
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Early depictions of reconstructive surgery: The tubed pedicle flap
Ariana ShaariRutgers, New Jersey, United States The history of head and neck reconstruction is as rich as it is complex. Reconstructive techniques in this domain are broadly categorized as local pedicle flaps, regional flaps, and free flaps.1 These methods trace their origin to ancient practices,… Read more
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Helen Rosaline Ashton: Physician and author
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Medicine has long been a fertile training ground for those who abandon their profession to become writers. Their number includes Anton Chekhov, William Somerset Maugham, John Keats, Mikhail Bulgakov, William Carlos Williams, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Helen Ashton has been largely forgotten… Read more
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Belmont DeForest Bogart (1867–1934): Cardiac surgeon and father of a famous actor
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Bogart–Bacall syndrome (BBS)1,2 is a voice disorder caused by abuse or overuse of the vocal cords; people who speak or sing outside their normal vocal range can develop it. Symptoms are chiefly an unusually deep or rough voice, or dysphonia, and… Read more
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The history of operating on the abdomen (laparotomy)
For many centuries, “laparotomy” (derived from the Greek “lapara”, “flank or soft part”, and “tome”, “to cut”) was considered extremely dangerous and rarely attempted. There is a poorly documented report on Jacob Nufer, an Austrian or Swiss veterinarian or even pig farmer, who around the… Read more