Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: UK

  • Samuel Solly—distinguished surgeon and educator

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK Samuel Solly was born in St. Mary Axe, London, on May 13, 1805. He attended school in Walthamstow, East London, where his contemporaries included the future British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.1 In May 1822 he became an apprentice to Benjamin Travers, a surgeon at St. Thomas’s Hospital.2 For this privilege he…

  • A classic case of vanity

    Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece In The Citadel, A. J. Cronin’s quintessential medical novel, the hero, Dr. Andrew Manson, still a junior doctor in country practice, is unhappy with his lowly professional status and wonders how he can improve matters. Christine, his devoted wife, urges him to try and obtain a higher medical qualification, perhaps the MRCP,…

  • Cicely Williams and kwashiorkor

    Sue ReevesRoehampton, London, UK Cicely Delphine Williams (1893–1992) has been described as achieving  the ‘physician’s dream’1 by diagnosing, identifying the cause, and finding a prevention and a cure for a disease.2  The disease she identified was kwashiorkor, a severe form of protein-energy malnutrition, fatal if not treated promptly.  Williams was the first woman to recognize…