Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Thomas Rowlandson

  • The consultation or last hope, by Thomas Rowlandson (1808)

    Five doctors have been called in consultation to see an obese patient suffering from gout. An old nurse on the left is deeply asleep. Several other doctors shown on the right are waiting their turn to give their opinion—in this age when consultation by multiple physicians was the custom. Highlighted Vignette Volume 13, Issue 2–…

  • The Anatomist

    This 1811 caricature shows a red-faced anatomist, knife in hand. Behind him, a young man had fallen asleep, and the anatomist had mistaken him for dead, covering him with a sheet. The young woman in the center of the image attempts to change the anatomist’s mind, but he appears ready to begin his dissection anyway.…

  • “Rich man, poor man”: A history of lead poisoning

    Mariel TishmaChicago, Illinois, United States The history of lead poisoning is the history of human industry. For unmarked time, lead has been around causing abdominal pain, constipation, nausea, and irritability, as well as conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, reduced fertility, and gout.1 Many say that the first description of the symptoms of lead poisoning…

  • How not to make the consultation sexy

    Claire ElliottLondon, Ukrain Why do patients allow physicians to carry out an intimate examination barely ten minutes after they have met? As John Berger wrote in 1967, “We give the doctor access to our bodies. Apart from the doctor, we only grant such access voluntarily to lovers – and many are frightened to do even…

  • Shiloh

    Winona WendthWorcester, Massachusetts, United States On December 31, 1814, at 38 Manchester Street in the Paddington section of London, Joanna Southcott lay four days dead. Her body, at one time plump and motherly, was grey, past lividity and rigor mortis, her back and legs already dark, appearing bruised. She hadn’t taken a breath since two…