Tag: Winter 2025
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Shingles
JMS PearceHull, England The physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia in the second century AD described a painful skin eruption that typically followed a band-like or “girdle-like” pattern, which corresponds to the dermatomal pattern of shingles.1 The Greek word herpein means “to creep,” and zoster (Latin cingulum) means a girdle or belt, referring to the rash’s unilateral…
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The mystery of the hoofbeats
Edward TaborBethesda, Maryland, United States All physicians get phone calls from time to time from friends asking for medical advice. I received one of these calls from a pharmacologist I knew. A few weeks prior, his wife had begun having memory loss and difficulty walking. The day before he called me, she began losing consciousness…
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Witch trials: The intersection of midwifery and gendered persecution
Lara SheehanCork, Ireland Oppressionist behavior towards women was seen during the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, where the illogical execution of thousands of innocent women occurred.1 Midwives were among these executed women for the role they played in being with and caring for women. In the 16th and 17th centuries the subjugation…
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Hulusi Behçet (1889–1948)
Umut AkovaAtlanta, Georgia, United States Hulusi Behçet is remembered for describing the rare disease that now bears his name. Born on February 20, 1889, in Istanbul, he moved to Damascus at a young age. He attended a French-speaking elementary school, learning French, Latin, and German. At age sixteen, in 1906, he enrolled at the Imperial…
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Soap and bathing in ancient and modern times
Humans have used soap since time immemorial. Yet bathing was not always a high priority, not even at the elegant court of Louis XIV, where noblemen relied largely on using perfume. “I am coming home, do not wash,” wrote Napoleon to his wife Josephine, concerned that she would wash away her pheromones. John Wesley preached…
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Early accounts of meningitis
JMS PearceHull, England Few illnesses convey more fear of a swift, fatal outcome than does meningitis. Cerebrospinal meningitis was once known as spotted fever, cerebrospinal fever, typhus cerebralis, or meningitis epidemica. In Greek meninx, or in Latin meningeus, is a membrane. In English literature, meninges appeared in 1543: “Whan the brayne pan is remoued, there appere two rymes,…
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TB or not to be?
Bhaumik KamdarMumbai, India Every time I sneeze, I am distrustedWith every bout of cough, everyone is disgustedI am subjected to exclusion, and otherizationEverything is nothing but societal authorization Thanks to Mycobacterium that has invaded meSociety has secluded meI am nothing but a name in the TB registryNothing but a government beneficiary My sputum is a…
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Two medical pioneers named Whipple
Two medical pioneers, both sharing the surname Whipple but not related to one another and working in distinct fields of medicine, made a lasting impact on the treatment of two diseases that in their time were universally fatal. Dr. George Hoyt Whipple (1878–1976) was a physician, pathologist, and medical researcher whose work revolutionized the treatment…
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Alice Fisher: A Nightingale in Philadelphia
Karen EgenesCentennial, Colorado, United States In 1883, the board of the Guardians of the Poor, the administrators of the Philadelphia almshouse, faced a dilemma. The institution, founded in 1732 and often referred to as “Old Blockley,” was a combination of an almshouse for paupers, workhouse for vagrants, jail for criminals, asylum for the insane, and…