Winter 2014 - Hektoen International

Schubert, Schumann, and the Spirochete

January 30, 2017

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) Their names sound Germanic and are somewhat similar, as are their portraits. They wrote beautiful music and rank high among the great composers of the romantic era. To confuse their names would constitute an unforgivable crime, especially in the eye of music lovers. Yet in […]

Anesthesia: culture, technology, and the rise of the surgeon

January 30, 2017

Suzanne Raga New Jersey, USA A depiction of eye surgery c. 1195 The introduction of new technologies such as surgical anesthesia has led to better methods of diagnosis and treatment, but it also shows that the relationship between medical theory and practice is not always a smooth one. Surprisingly, anesthesia was first used for […]

The boys’ club

January 30, 2017

Laura Hirshbein Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States Galen of Pergamon, the most famous medical researcher of classical antiquity Lithograph by Pierre Roche Vigneron, c. 1865. In 1914, a group of fraternity men from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, decided they needed more influence at the school. One of the […]

Behind the pep: modern and postmodern perspectives in Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company’s advertising

January 30, 2017

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 […]

Ambiguity-based evidence

January 30, 2017

Wolfgang Lederer Austria I still ask myself whether medicine has anything to do with ethics or whether it does not. Ethical considerations, after all, are derived from philosophy, usually reflecting the values held by a community, often dictated by community leaders or religious authorities, economic considerations, and majority opinion. This implies that ethical values […]

I’m not sure I’m so ethical

January 30, 2017

Paul Kettl Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA An abandoned mental hospital. Photography by Jarle Naustvik 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 […]

Neurologica – Disorders of the dream world

January 29, 2017

Shameemah Abrahams Cape Town A portrait of the pioneering neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, who was well-known for characterizing multiple sclerosis and hysteria. 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 […]

A tribe’s fattening culture and its impact on health

January 29, 2017

Victor John Etuk Daura, 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 […]

Carl Linnaeus – Botanist and physician

January 29, 2017

Einar Perman Stockholm, 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 […]

Children do not die

January 27, 2017

Matko Marusic Croatia Photography by S GLeisner 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 […]