Health Feb 06 Was Charles Dickens the first celebrity medical spokesman? This Feb. 6, we celebrate Charles Dickens, the novelist and literary superstar of his day. He may well have been the first celebrity spokesman for a medical charity. The cause was London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and it first…
Health Jan 14 Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a renowned medical missionary with a complicated history In 2016, Albert Schweitzer may be a somewhat forgotten, or even a controversial, figure but a half a century or more ago, the mere mention of the name Schweitzer instantly conjured up images of selflessness, heroism and the very model…
Health Dec 10 The story behind Alfred Nobel’s spirit of discovery Every Dec. 10 for the past 114 years, the eyes of the world have turned to Stockholm, Sweden, where the Nobel Prizes are formally awarded to the brilliant men and women who have made exemplary inroads in Medicine or Physiology,…
Health Nov 30 No, Oscar Wilde probably didn’t die of syphilis The long-held theory was that Oscar Wilde succumbed to the ravages of end-stage syphilis. Fortunately, a London neurologist and two ear surgeons from South Africa have spent considerable time poring over Wilde’s medical and prison records to propose an entirely…
Health Oct 02 When a secret president ran the country All during September of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson became thinner, paler and ever more frail. Unfortunately, the president refused to listen to his body. He had too much important work to do.
Health Sep 22 Celebrating the life of Alice Hamilton, founding mother of occupational medicine No individual was more instrumental in warning people about the health risks and potential dangers of the industrial workplace than Alice Hamilton.
Health Aug 02 The ‘strange’ death of Warren G. Harding At 7:20 p.m. on the evening of Aug. 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding’s wife, Florence, was reading the “Saturday Evening Post” to him in the presidential suite of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. The article in question was about Mr.
Health Jul 19 Happy birthday to the woman who revolutionized endocrinology Rosalyn S. Yalow was a giant of medicine. A Nobel laureate and medical physicist, Yalow co-discovered the radioimmunoassay, an exquisitely sensitive means of using “radioactive tracers” to measure hormones in the bloodstream.
Health Jun 09 In honor of Cole Porter’s 124th birthday, his story of triumph over pain When Cole Porter died of kidney failure at age 73 on Oct. 15, 1964, only his closest friends knew the extent of the physical and mental anguish he had endured for 27 years. Against all clinical odds, even if only…
Health May 15 In 1850, Ignaz Semmelweis saved lives with three words: wash your hands On this date in 1850, a prickly Hungarian obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis stepped up to the podium of the Vienna Medical Society’s lecture hall to give his fellow doctors advice, which could be summed up in three little words: wash…