Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Thomas Hobbes

  • Francis Bacon’s natural philosophy and medicine

    JMS PearceHull, England Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced.– Alexander Pope, 1741 The early seventeenth century was a time when natural philosophy, the precursor of modern science, was advanced dramatically by names still famous 300 years later. Philosophy and natural philosophy were intimately bound concepts, both inchoate,…

  • The history of Bethlem Hospital

    Janice TiaoPennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States Perhaps no hospital has made its mark on human imagination as much as Bethlem Hospital, located outside London. The first hospital in England to specialize in the care of the insane, Bethlem gave birth to the caricature of the lunatic asylum as a place filled with chained patients in filthy…