Hektoen International

23/07/2025

Did Saint Peter have leprosy, or perhaps some other cause of injury to the ulnar nerve? In a recent book Dr. Bennett Futterman points out that the traditional blessing of the Pope—ring and little finger bent inward as in the clawhand deformity produced by ulnar nerve damage—is also displayed in some of the earlier paintings of St. Peter by Medieval and Renaissance masters. http://bit.ly/3UlYjhY

23/07/2025

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens sketches Madame Defarge as a woman of great composure with a watchful eye, knitting and helping her husband in their wine shop while her vengeful nature seeks out aristocrats to die on the guillotine’s scaffold http://bit.ly/2JrDYpD

22/07/2025

Giulio Casserio, an anatomist active in Padua around AD.1600, published several anatomical works, the finest being the Tabulae anatomicae LXXIIXX, printed posthumously in 1627 with beautiful illustrations drawn by Odoardo Fialetti, a student of Tintoretto http://bit.ly/2ImFIM0

22/07/2025

Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin, founded the LunarSociety in Birmingham, a select club gathered together monthly for the exchange of ideas over dinner. Members were often referred to as “Lunaticks” http://bit.ly/2qal4ub

22/07/2025

In 1928 Alexander Fleming carried out experiments that led to the discovery of penicillin. Many know the unique story of penicillin's discovery, how after leaving culture dishes that led to the discovery of penicillin, observing that a Petri dish inoculated with Staphylococci had been contaminated with a mold. Its juice would kill bacteria but not human tissue http://bit.ly/2USaXs7

22/07/2025

Michelangelo Buonarroti was an exception to the rule that the qualities of many brilliant artists and composers are realized and extolled only after death. He was recognized by contemporaries as a genius, the only artist of whom it was claimed in his lifetime that he surpassed the achievements of Antiquity. Best known among his works are the sculpture of David, his Pietà statues, and the exquisite Sistine Chapel frescoes, including the Last Judgment, created c. 1508–1512. http://bit.ly/44VBRBk

21/07/2025

Elizabeth Fleischmann-Aschheim opened California’s first X-ray photography laboratory in 1896, merely one year after Roentgen’s discovery. In 1904, her arm had to be amputated because of damage from radiation. One year later “death came as a relief” http://bit.ly/3qSdRP5

21/07/2025

The power of sound: The tenor, Jussi Björling, put the glass on the table about a foot away and proceeded to sing in a tone that became progressively louder and more intensive. The glass began to vibrate, slightly wobbled, and then shattered. http://bit.ly/3zMjdQc

21/07/2025

Kleptomania is defined as a recurrent compulsion to steal. Affected persons often act on impulse and are not motivated by economic necessities. They tend not to use the objects they steal but may return them, hide them, or throw them away. They seem to get gratification from the very act of stealing, or at least cannot resist doing so. Some psychiatrists have suggested that kleptomania is part of the spectrum of obsessive-compulsive disorders. See painting by Théodore Géricault http://bit.ly/3KrJl5g

21/07/2025

Guy de Chauliac was the personal physician of three of the seven popes forced to reside in Avignon during their so-called Babylonian captivity. He practiced mainly as a physician, and reportedly wielded the knife mainly to embalm the bodies of dead popes, but was careful to avoid using it on living patients. When the Black Death arrived in Avignon in 1348, most physicians fled the city, but Chauliac stayed on, treating plague patients and meticulously documenting symptoms. http://bit.ly/4nTovOs

18/07/2025

The Roman emperor Galerius (260–312) became the sole ruler of the empire after Diocletian’s death. A fierce persecutor of Christians, he died from a severe infection of the skin and soft tissue of the p***c area called Fournier gangrene , “in which his body, with intolerable anguish, was dissolved into one mass of corruption”. http://bit.ly/44ynjsk

18/07/2025

Hektoen's COVID-19 Monument Commission Members, Courtney Avery & Dr. Sally Metzler, appeared on CAN-TV Chicago with Tacora Love, Nurse & Program Director, Northwestern Memorial and the Hektoen Nurses and Humanities co-Chair, to share their vision of the COVID-19 Monument. Watch the YouTube clip: http://bit.ly/4o6fWQG . And please offer a tribute to a frontline worker or remember someone whom you lost in the Virtual Memory Garden: http://bit.ly/4o6fWQG.

The Poetry contest is closed. Stay tuned for our Pandemic Poetry Contest Winner! Today, millions have died from or have been infected by COVID-19. For those who have perished, for those who have lost a loved one, for those suffering from long COVID, and for those who courageously and selflessly ser...