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

  • The ships’ surgeons’ toxic toolkit

    Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia During the “Age of Sail,” months-long voyages gave rise to unique health concerns.1,2 Moreover, ships’ surgeons frequently encountered diseases brought upon uninhibited sailors through their own “adventurous” behavior. Following their arrival at far-flung ports, sailors often returned from shore visits with more… Read more

  • John Coakley Lettsom

    JMS PearceHull, England John Coakley Lettsom (aka Lettsome) MD FRCP Ed., FRS (1744–1815) is remembered as the physician who founded The Medical Society of London and for his monograph Reflections on the General Treatment and Cure of Fevers. He was born on Van Dyke in… Read more

  • Arvid Carlsson (1923–2018)

    In the world of science, the name of the Swedish physician scientist Arvid Carlsson is inextricably linked to that of dopamine. This catecholamine, consisting essentially of a benzene ring linked to an amine, was isolated as early as 1910, but had been largely ignored as… Read more

  • Beets

    George DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States All but the most lionhearted would experience a sinking feeling on finding they have passed blood in their urine. With Sir Walter Scott they might wonder if changing the vowel A to I means they would soon be making earth.… Read more

  • Esperanto and the babble of dreamers

    Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel L.L. Zamenhof (1859–1917) was an ophthalmologist and philologist from Białystok, then in Russia, now Poland. In the 1880s, he created a new language called Esperanto. The word Esperanto comes from the Latin, spiro, which means “to breathe.” Spiro also means one… Read more

  • Dr. Ugo Cerletti invents electroconvulsive therapy

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Is it even possible, is it logical, is it reasonable for us to treat people who have lost their mind by making them live amongst others who have lost theirs too?”1– Ugo Cerletti, M.D., 1949 Dr. Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963) trained as a… Read more

  • Xenotransplantation on Mount Kalilash

    Devanshi PatelRajkot, Gujarat, India According to Hindu mythology, Mount Kalilash in the Himalayas is the abode of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati, along with their children Kartikeya and Ganesh.1 The latter son is the elephant-headed god of beginnings, intellectuals, bankers, scribes and authors.2 Many… Read more

  • The two ends of the stethoscope

    Jill KarNew Delhi, India Author’s note The theme of this poem is the decline of doctor-patient relationship in the modern medical setting. Through the expression of unsaid feelings, this poem outlines the thoughts of a patient (stanza 1) and a doctor (stanza 2) in the… Read more

  • Blindness and visual sensory distortion in Thomas Bewick’s woodcuts

    Stephen MartinThailand The artist and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) was one of the Enlightenment’s leading polymaths. He wrote groundbreaking books on birds1 and mammals,2 as well as an autobiography, which is absorbing and charming. This Memoir of Thomas Bewick3 is a delightfully detailed window on… Read more

  • The physician’s guide to The Garden of Earthly Delights

    Nora Fisher-CampbellPortland, Oregon, United States I have returned repeatedly to The Garden of Earthly Delights as a strange and fascinating representation of the human experience. The triptych, painted in the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century by Hieronymus Bosch, depicts a fever-dream vision of Eden,… Read more

  • Book review: The Story of the Brain in 10 1/2 Cells

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The brain is arguably the most complex organ in the human body, containing more than 100 billion neurons. In this new book, neuroscientist Richard Wingate sets out to describe different types of brain cells, weaving together neuroscience with stories of… Read more

  • Walter Charleton (1619–1707)

    Walter Charleton was primarily a polymath but also a distinguished medical man. He read widely; wrote on religion, physics, physiology, psychology, geology, zoology, and botany; and is the listed author of thirty printed books and four manuscripts.1 One of his biographers mentions, without further comment,… Read more