Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: The psychological impact of facial injury in the First World War: outcomes from the Queen’s Hospital Sidcup

  • René Descartes found that Sweden was hazardous to his health

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He obtained a law degree in 1616 at his father’s insistence, but in 1618 became an officer in the army of the Dutch Protestant States. He is thought to have influenced the… Read more

  • Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617): The artist’s hand

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States In 1588, when Hendrick Goltzius created this striking drawing (Fig. 1) of his deformed right hand, the thirty-year old Haarlem draftsman and engraver was already one of the most influential, well-recognized artists in Europe. In a sense, the drawing… Read more

  • Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces: Murder, charity, & leprosy

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Few historical figures present singular profiles of good or evil. Often, the confluence of disparate actions molds the fame or infamy of great leaders. A prime example is Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces (b. 925–d. 976). Though he rose to power… Read more

  • It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the… Read more

  • Dr. William Hall and rickets

    JMS PearceHull, England Today, few Western doctors have seen children suffering from rickets, an extremely common crippling scourge of children recorded since the second century AD. Whistler, Boot, and Glisson in the seventeenth century described the clinical features. Its cause was a mystery. In a… Read more

  • Nurse Helen Repa takes charge in a disaster

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.”– Stephen Ambrose, American historian On July 24, 1915, the Western Electric Company, a technology and engineering giant, had arranged an excursion and picnic for several thousand of its employees. Five Great Lakes… Read more

  • Salvador Luria and the bacteriophage

    Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States In 1859, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed that if an organism is changed by environmental stimuli, these changes would be passed on to offspring. This theory was eventually disproven. One important study disproving this concept led to the Nobel… Read more

  • Rembrandt: Tobias Healing His Father’s Blindness

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s Tobias Healing his Father’s Blindness, painted in 1636, depicts the climactic moment in the Book of Tobit when Tobias returns to his father’s home and instills the gall (bile) he had taken from a giant… Read more

  • The discovery of heparin

    Mostafa ElbabaDoha, Qatar The sulfated glycosaminoglycan known as heparin is the most common anticoagulant used in clinical medicine. Its therapeutic role is to increase antithrombin activity. While its physiologic role in humans is not fully understood, heparin is stored and secreted from mast cells at… Read more

  • Propagating penicillin in Peoria: From discovery to mass production

    Julius BonelloMichael NeffZoe DemkoPeoria, Illinois, United States One of the greatest medical achievements of the twenty-first century was the creation of penicillin. The road to this great achievement began almost 300 years ago when Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), a draper by trade who had no… Read more

  • Dr. Maria Nowak-Vogl and the Innsbruck Child Observation Station

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “[It was] a home, a prison, and a testing clinic.”– Description of the Child Observation Station by a former inmate Maria Nowak-Vogl (1922–1998) earned her MD degree from the University of Innsbruck, Austria in 1947, her doctorate in psychology in 1952, and… Read more

  • Thomas Guy and his statue

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Thomas Guy was probably the greatest charitable benefactor in eighteenth-century Britain. At his death, he had amassed a fortune of over two hundred thousand pounds (worth around 500 million pounds in today’s money). His largesse was directed primarily at Guy’s Hospital… Read more