Richard De Grijs Sydney, Australia Beakhead (top) and internal grating (bottom left) at the bow of the replica Dutch East Indiaman Duyfken (late 16th century; Australian National Maritime Museum). Bottom right: One of the heads and a tow rag at the bow of the Australian National Maritime Museum’s H.M.B. Endeavour replica (mid- to late 18th century). Photos by author. At 5 P.M. it blew rather fresh, but so steady that the Top Gallant sails were not taken in. The Purser went into the weather round House about this time, which is fixed in the Galley, on the Ships Bows. While he was on the Seat, a ..read more

Although the English physician William Musgrave described the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in his 1715 publication De Arthritide Symptomatica, credit is usually given to the twenty-year-old French physician Augustin Jacob Landré-Beauvais (1772–1840). Working at the Saltpêtrière in Paris, he described a disease somewhat different from gout or degenerative joint disease. It affected the poor more often than the rich, women more than men, involved different joints, and had a different natural history. He called the disease “Goutte Asthénique Primitive” or “Primary Asthenic Gout” (1800).1,2 Un ..read more

Bob Scott Scotland “Erring is human; not to, animal” – Robert Frost, The White-tailed Hornet Why is it so difficult to face up to our shortcomings? It is more than 300 years since Alexander Pope wrote1 that a defining characteristic of humankind was to err, while granting forgiveness was at the discretion of a god. Robert Frost’s more recent aphorism pithily endorses Pope’s assertion and is more in keeping with the zeitgeist of the 21st century. A reluctance to dredge up errors is reason enough for hesitancy, for who among us relishes the opportunity to revisit their ancient omissions and blun ..read more

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Animal hoarding of rabbits. Photo by Stefan Körner and uploaded by Uwe Gille to Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0.  “The Lord said to Noah… ‘Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal…and one pair of every unclean animal…and also seven pairs of every kind of bird.’” – Genesis 7, in the Old Testament Between 2–6 % of people are hoarders.1 They excessively acquire unneeded items, often without space to store them. They have difficulty parting with these possessions. The objects hoarded may be old newspapers, junk mail, food, trash, cigarette butts, or nearl ..read more

Nina Sokol Denmark A translated excerpt from the poetry collection No One Is Speaking by Danish writer Birte Kont, depicting when her husband underwent cancer treatment. The anthology has received considerable praise in Denmark in its honest portrayal of what loved ones and close kin endure when a family member is diagnosed with cancer. The loved one, in this particular case, a spouse, must take on the role of “no one” and set aside their feelings and needs for their sake. This collection is an attempt to give that loving spouse, “no one,” a voice. January 2014 You are going to get x-rayed you ..read more

Julius Bonello Kathy Slater Peoria, Illinois, United States Skeleton of Charles Byrne, Irish Giant, in John Hunter’s museum London, England, Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. That the true idea of Life existed in the mind of John Hunter, I do not entertain the least doubt. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge The silence of the graveyard was broken by the grunts of laboring men and the sound of shovels slicing through fresh ground. “Shhhhh, don’t be so loud. Someone will hear you.” The full moon was almost up, and the men were working furiously to finish the job. The body was removed slowly from the ground, and t ..read more

Julius Bonello Cassandra Palmer Peoria, Illinois, United States Statue of Chamberlain at Bowdoin College Campus. Photo by Tessa Bonello. “The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, in which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where in space and time greatens the heart to the limit of the souls ideal and builds out the supreme of character.” – Joshua Chamberlain, Oct ..read more

Stephen Martin Thailand Fig. 1. Nicolò Manucci gathering medicinal plants. Anonymous Indian Imperial Moghul Court painter, commissioned by Manucci, probably Aurangabad, possibly Delhi, 1660s/70s. Histoire de l’Inde depuis Tamerlank jusquà Orangzeb: [peinture]. 1 vol. 56 images. BibNatFrance. Estampes et photographie, Reserve-OD-45.  A teenage stowaway on a ship from Venice in 1653 had an unusual route into medicine. He was Nicolò Manucci (1638–1720, Fig 1). The earliest image of him gathering medicinal herbs in India is in the style of a Moghul imperial artist, probably done in Auran ..read more

Peter de Smet Nijmegen, Netherlands The Ibibio and Igbo peoples in southern Nigeria commemorate their deceased ancestors in masquerades, in which beautiful masks depict good ancestors, while ugly masks portray those who roam about as spirits inflicting illness and misfortune if moral laws are broken. These ugly masks may show twisted or eaten-away noses and lips, sores, and flapped (blind) eyes (Figs 1-2) to remind spectators what could happen to them if they leave the path of righteousness.1-8 An interesting clinical question is whether one could submit such grotesque masks to a diagnostic ga ..read more

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) lesions. More information at the Public Health Image Library.  “In the community of living tissues, the uncontrolled mob of misfits that is cancer behaves like a gang of perpetually wilding adolescents. They are the juvenile delinquents of cellular society.” – Sherwin Nuland, MD, How We Die Bob Marley (1945–1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician, and the son of a Jamaican mother and a white English father. He started singing professionally in 1963, and his music was rapidly appreciated. He and his group eventually ..read more