Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Winter 2011

  • Book Review: Alain de Botton’s The Pleasures and Sorrow of Work

    Sima Barmania London, United Kingdom   Published by Penguin Books, 2009 ISBN: 9780241143537 What do you suppose biscuit manufacturing and the healthcare profession have in common? Well, according to Alain de Botton they both attain a sense of meaning by increasing pleasure or decreasing the suffering of another human being, a necessary prerequisite for a…

  • Caduceus versus the Staff of Asclepius

     Portrait of an Elderly Physician Gaspare Pagani Philadelphia Museum of Art   This painting from the Philadelphia Museum of Art is attributed to Gaspare Pagani, a relatively obscure sixteenth century artist from Modena, Italy, the world capital of balsamic vinegar. It shows an elderly man carrying a staff with two serpents coiled around it, serving…

  • The model for Albrecht Dürer’s Praying Hands

    William R. AlburyGeorge M. WeiszNew South Wales, Australia The image of Praying Hands by Albrecht Dürer, painted on an altarpiece in the sixteenth century and destroyed by fire in the seventeenth century, has come down to us in the form of a preparatory drawing on blue-grey paper (Fig. 1). The popularity of this image is impressive because…

  • The anatomy of beauty in nineteenth-century England

    Alan W. BatesLondon, United Kingdom Few characteristics seem more subjective and less amenable to scientific study than beauty. As the philosopher David Hume wrote in 1741, “Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.” How then did some nineteenth-century European anatomists come to see human beauty as a branch of science for which…

  • The veteran’s hospital

    Helen Foster Richmond, Virginia, United States   Poet’s statement: Before I went to medical school, I followed doctor’s orders to hold my toddler son down and force on him more eye-drops than he needed to dilate his pupils. He panicked, and the atropine drops made him hallucinate. The incident I describe in my poem “The…

  • Breast Cancer Suite

    Terri Erickson Lewisville, North Carolina, United States   Poet’s statement: Since I became a published poet, it has been my privilege to spend a few hours volunteering at one of our local cancer centers, working with a very compassionate chaplain—one who understands the healing power of words. She invited me first, to speak with a…

  • Of starlit huts and Sahelian sand

    Sara BuckChicago, Illinois, United States Landing in Dakar airport, the Air Afrique flight from New York hummed into the humid night air. Having traversed the nocturnal waters of the Atlantic, our plane descended upon the capital city, its sparse lights glittering along the coast and the nearby Île de Gorrée as if lava were streaming…

  • What God gives: Prayers from Africa

    Marcia Whitney-SchenckChicago, Illinois, United States Rev. David Ambola from Mbingo, Cameroon, has remarked that Africans are incurably religious. Indeed, for many in Africa, religion permeates every aspect of their lives, from Christian messages on the rear windows of taxis to hand-crafted signs in hospital waiting rooms. Hand surgeon Dr. Robert Schenck and his wife, photographer…

  • Artful science

    Julie Schnidman & Annie Yeh Chicago, Illinois, USA   Science and art play integral roles in shaping the content of Hektoen International. Therefore, we wanted to highlight the work of three artist/scientists from the Chicago area and explore the influences behind their eclectic career paths. We met Hunter Cole, Peter Gray, and Vesna Jovanovic at…

  • Cadaver Palavers

    Aubrie Lee  California, United States Poet’s statement: This poem was inspired by stories about gross anatomy. Although I haven’t entered medical school yet, I am fascinated by the questions about identity and the soul that arise when the living examine the dead. “Cadaver Palavers” is an imaginative exploration of what it would be like to…