Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Trepanation

  • Augustus Pitt Rivers: Leader in medical anthropology and healthcare understanding

    Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827–1900) established himself as one of the leading figures who shaped contemporary medical anthropology and archaeology. During his time as a British Army officer (he later received the honorary rank of Lieutenant-General), he studied how different societies handled their health needs and treated their diseases. The medical field became his direct focus when he…

  • A hole in the head and a world of skill

    Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia In the dim confines of a ship’s sickbay during the golden age of piracy, the sound of waves might have been interrupted by the rasp and twist of a surgical drill biting into bone. Trepanning—the act of boring into the skull to relieve the pressure on the brain following head trauma—was…

  • The barber-surgeons: Their history over the centuries

    Anusha PillayRaipur, India “His pole, with pewter basins hung,Black, rotten teeth in order strung,Rang’d cups that in the window stood,Lin’d with red rags, to look like blood,Did well his threefold trade explain,Who shav’d, drew teeth, and breath’d a vein.”– The Goat without a Beard by John Gay Barbers today are primarily engaged in caring for…

  • Bosch’s Stone Operation: Meaning, medicine, and morality

    Laurinda DixonNew York, United States The Stone Operation (fig. 1) (ca. 1488 or later), also known as The Cure of Folly, by the Dutch fifteenth-century painter Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516), is, like all of his works, bizarre and incomprehensible by modern standards of reality.1 The painting depicts a surgeon, dressed in the characteristic reddish robe…