Tag: Winter 2023
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Sea sick: Naval surgery and sanitation in eighteenth-century Britain
Melissa YeoOntario, Canada Scurvy, yellow fever, and typhus were considered “the three Great Killers of seamen.”1 Hygiene and diet were very poor aboard eighteenth-century sailing vessels, as ships were often overstocked with men to account for ensuing losses while at sea.2 The sanitation on board these ships was considered as bad or worse than the slums…
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The origins of the word “hospital”
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “hospital” is derived from the Old French “ospital,” meaning hostel, shelter, lodging, or shelter for the needy. The origin can be traced to the Latin “hospitale” and persists in the modern French “hôpital.” The OED states further: The sense of “charitable institution to…
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Further observations on the centenary of Vegemite
Morris OdellMelbourne, Australia The articles by doctors James Franklin and George Dunea on Vegemite and Marmite1,2 certainly struck a chord with me. Their observation that Vegemite is a symbol of Australia’s national identity barely does justice to its place in Australian culture and ethos. Although it does originate from an attempt to make a similar…
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Posthumous reproduction
Ian CookeSheffield, England Family structures ensure that one’s genes are passed down through generations, but that does not always go according to plan. The opportunity may not arise because childhood or adolescent disease, notably cancer but also infections or trauma, may supervene. In 1996, I was doing a clinic late in the afternoon when I…
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Hadrian and Frank’s sign
Vittoria SabatiniFlorence, Italy It is difficult to remain an emperor in the presence of a physician, and difficult even to keep one’s essential quality as man. The professional eye saw in me only a mass of humors, a sorry mixture of blood and lymph. This morning it occurred to me for the first time that…
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Thomas Szasz
JMS PearceHull, England “[Mental illness] is a myth, whose function it is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter pill of moral conflicts in human relations.”—TS Szasz (1920–2012), “The myth of mental illness”1 In a discipline as diverse as medicine, it should occasion no surprise that odd characters, eccentrics, and unorthodox adventurers emerge…
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The new pandemic
Maite LosarcosNavarra, Spain It is just another day. The traffic light is red as pedestrians cross the street before you, always in a hurry. At last, the light turns green, but just as you prepare to start the car, the world goes white. People shout, cars honk, and rage fills the place, but you cannot…
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What is the point?
Aariya SrinivasanChennai, India I am yet another young doctor struggling to find a place and purpose in this world. When I was in medical school, all I could ever think about was how to get through the next exam. Most of us do. We sit for days and nights together, prepare for fifteen hours a…
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Fraudulent medical research and “zombie articles”
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Ninety percent of everything is crap.”– Sturgeon’s law1“Garbage in, garbage out.” – Early computer-speak for “nonsense input produces nonsense output” The publishing of studies in medical journals is based on trust. When journal editors receive a manuscript, they first look at the title to determine if the subject may be appropriate for…
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Book review: The Guru, the Bagman and the Sceptic: A story of science, sex and psychoanalysis
Robert KaplanSydney, Australia As a cultural icon of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis has loomed large in the public imagination. What makes it unique is the focus on the central figure, who set up a movement to promote it while constantly proclaiming it a science. Sigmund Freud is inextricable from psychoanalysis, which bears his imprimatur to…