Tag: Vignette
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Pharaoh’s proctologist: The Shepherd of the Rectum
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden Ancient Egyptian medicine was based on religion, magic, and specific conceptions of human anatomy and physiology. The human body was believed to contain twenty-two “channels” (called metu) that carried blood, air, water, urine, mucus, semen, and bodily waste. These channels were arteries, veins, tendons, and nerves.1 A blockage in any channel could…
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Milk in medicine
The mammary glands are believed to have originated as glands in the skin of synapsids. These were the predecessors of mammals some 300 million years ago, and the function of their skin glands was to provide moisture for the eggs they were laying. When mammals came on to the scene, the function of the mammary…
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Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588)
To the twentieth century tourist, the name Zwinger brings to mind the beautiful palace built in Dresden in 1709 by King Augustus the Strong of Saxony. In German, Zwinger means an open area between two surrounding walls built to defend a city. But none of these have anything to do with Theodor Zwinger. He was…
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What can the candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) do?
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Lateral view of the candiru Paracanthopoma sp. in field aquarium. From Jansen Zuanon and Ivan Sazima, “Free meals on long-distance cruisers: the vampire fish rides giant catfishes in the Amazon,” Biota Neotropica 5, no. 1 (2005), via ResearchGate. CC BY-NC 4.0. “[N]o one has stepped forward to observe the candiru’s life…
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Justus von Liebig (1803–1873)
Philip Liebson Chicago, Illinois, United States Justus Freiherr von Liebig c. 1866. US National Library of Medicine. Via Wikimedia. An extraordinary chemist, Justus von Liebig influenced the development of organic chemistry, scientific teaching of chemistry, and the application of chemistry to physiology and agriculture. He was one of the forerunners of the German educators…
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Last rites x2
Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom In the late 1960s, I was non-resident neurology house physician in a hospital in central London when we admitted a prominent citizen as a private patient. He was suffering from a catastrophic cerebral hemorrhage—he was moribund, but the decision was taken to perform cerebral angiography (it was before…
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Adolf Bastian, pioneering anthropologist
Adolf Bastian, 1892. Via Wikimedia. Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) was one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, born June 26, 1826, in Bremen, Germany. This multicultural port city exposed him to many different cultures and customs, eventually igniting his interest in studying different societies. From his father, who belonged to a well-known merchant family, he inherited…
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Kenelm Digby, polymath and inventor of the wound salve
Kenelm Digby. Via Wikimedia. Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665) was not a physician but came close to practicing medicine. He published in 1658 a treatise called A Late Discourse … Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy. It consisted of treating dueling wounds, as proposed by Paracelsus, with a “wound salve,” a mixture…
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“Brace, brace, brace!”—“Are we all going to die?”
Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom Flying to and from Scotland as an airline passenger years ago sometimes involved small aircraft. The smallest from Edinburgh to Belfast at one time was so small that a hostess got on at departure, wriggled between the passengers handing out packages, and then squirmed back and disembarked. Perfectly…
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Sanitariums as cure for consumption
Battle Creek Sanitarium before the fire of 1902. Willard Library Collection. Via Wikimedia. The institutions variously called sanitariums (from sanare, “to cure”) or sanitariums (from sanitas, meaning “health”) became all the rage around 1850. They were especially popular with the upper classes, as exemplified in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain by the young Hans Castorp,…