Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Vitamin C

  • The Grand Army and horsemeat

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “An army travels on its stomach.” — Attributed to Napoleon Out of all of the innovations of Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842), one has yet to be properly appreciated. In his own words, “I have very often, and with the greatest success given horseflesh to our soldiers and the wounded of our armies…[I]t…

  • “Plague of the Sea, and the Spoyle of Mariners”—A brief history of fermented cabbage as antiscorbutic

    Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia “. . . those affected have skin as black as ink, ulcers, difficult respiration, rictus of the limbs, teeth falling out and, perhaps most revolting of all, a strange plethora of gum tissue sprouting out of the mouth, which immediately rotted and lent the victim’s breath an abominable odour.”– Chaplain Richard…

  • The old ice box

    A popular doctor once had in his office an old icebox that had long ceased to fulfill the function for which it had been created. It was disconnected from electrical power but spacious enough to allow a person to sit in it. The physician would tell his worried, well patients that this was an X-ray…

  • Rehearsing lines

    Catalina Florina FlorescuHoboken, New Jersey, United States CHARACTERS: EveAna TIME AND SETTING: Now, here. Two women are seated on a bench. That’s all you need to know. Plus that their name is a palindrome. Mirrored names. Make what you want out of this. EVE: What is the taste of water, dear? ANA: Excuse me? EVE:…

  • Scurvy before James Lind

    JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom Cures of disease are still relatively uncommon. Scurvy is an example of a disease well recognized but whose cause eluded doctors for centuries until an empirical curative remedy and later a specific cause were discovered. In more recent times Koch’s discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in phthisis or consumption in 1882,…