Tag: Winter 2014
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Behind the pep: Modern and postmodern perspectives in Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company’s advertising
Ann W. Robinson New York, New York, USA At face value, the 1930s advertisement for Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound (to the right) elicits mild laughter and dismay. It can easily be interpreted as a sexist, scientifically unsound piece of medical propaganda laced with conformist social ideals, indicative of the era in which it was…
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I’m not sure I’m so ethical
Paul KettlPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, USA I’m not sure I’m so ethical. Don’t get me wrong. I think I’m a good doctor, and I don’t do bad things like sleep with my patients, beat my wife, or kick the dog. But I’m just not sure anymore I’m as ethical in my practice as I should be. It…
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Neurologica – Disorders of the dream world
Shameemah AbrahamsCape Town The human mind, so capable of creating works of genius like the orchestral sounds of Beethoven’s symphonies, da Vinci’s enigmatic artwork, or the majestic pyramids of Giza, can easily lose itself and spiral into the chaotic tragedy of dementia. Various forms of “frailties” of the mind have been seen in the artistically…
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A tribe’s fattening culture and its impact on health
Victor John EtukDaura, Nigeria When nineteenth century European explorers began to colonize West Africa, they were shocked by the corpulence of the Efik people of the Nigerian coast—over seventy percent of the population weighed more than ninety kilograms.1,2 Little did the Europeans know that fattening rituals took place behind closed doors, which largely contributed to…
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Carl Linnaeus – Botanist and physician
Einar PermanStockholm, Sweden Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist and father of modern plant nomenclature, was also a physician. Born in 1707 in a rural village in Southern Sweden, he had developed at an early age an interest in flowers and plants. His father was a priest and would have liked his son to also join…
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Children do not die
Matko MarusicCroatia Josip was just one of the boys who lived in our street, but to me he was and still is especially important. It was through him that I, for the first time, encountered an incurable disease; he was the first person I wanted to help, and was unable to. Later in my life,…
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What’s old is new again: quackery in the age of the Internet
Lawrence JonesHershey, Pennsylvania, United States The term “quack” is generally used to describe promoters of treatments and devices that have no acknowledged beneficial medical use. The advent of improved medical care and technology during the latter half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century was also considered as the peak…
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The second chart
Irene MartinezChicago, Illinois, United States When I arrived at the clinic, I was already behind schedule. I got up at 5:30 to get ready, but with my daughter’s end of the year school trip made things more complicated. I was already rushing when I got to the clinic, feeling agitated, my stomach tightened, yet high-spirited…
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Breathless: philosophical lessons from respiratory illness
Havi CarelUnited Kingdom It is 12:28. I have just parked my car in a lucky empty space just outside my office. I have a meeting at 12:30. I am texting with one hand and feeling for my inhaler in my coat pocket with the other. I pull the inhaler out, place it in my mouth,…