May 15 In 1850, Ignaz Semmelweis saved lives with three words: wash your hands By Dr. Howard Markel 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… Continue reading
Apr 14 April 14-15, 1865: The tragic final hours of Abraham Lincoln By Dr. Howard Markel The macabre details of Abraham Lincoln’s final hours were described in a report written by a 23-year-old Army captain named Charles A. Leale, a doctor who was at Ford's Theatre the night the president was assassinated. Continue reading
Mar 24 The day we discovered the cause of the ‘white death’ By Dr. Howard Markel Robert Koch’s greatest evening unfolded 133 years ago today, when he solved the riddle that had plagued doctors for centuries: what, exactly, caused tuberculosis?… Continue reading
Feb 07 What a 1925 novel by Sinclair Lewis can teach us about health care today By Dr. Howard Markel Feb. 7 marks the 130th birthday of Sinclair Lewis, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930. At first glance, one might ask what does an American novelist have to do with a column devoted to medical discoveries and… Continue reading
Jan 28 How playing with dangerous x-rays led to the discovery of radiation treatment for cancer By Dr. Howard Markel When the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s announced his discovery of the x-ray in December of 1895, he was lauded on the front page of just about every newspaper in the world. Indeed, many journalists called this phenomenon “X-Ray… Continue reading
Dec 14 Dec. 14, 1799: The excruciating final hours of President George Washington By Dr. Howard Markel It was a house call no physician would relish. On Dec. 14, 1799, three doctors were summoned to Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia to attend to a critically ill, 67-year-old man who happened to be known as “the father… Continue reading
Dec 12 Is rectal feeding an actual modern medical practice? By Domenico Montanaro One of the more dramatic findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s interrogation practices is that some uncooperative detainees were subjected to “rectal rehydration” and “rectal feedings.” But doctors say the practice is almost never used, that… Continue reading
Oct 15 Before Ebola, Ellis Island’s terrifying medical inspections By Dr. Howard Markel Oct. 15, 1966 marked the day that Ellis Island (along with Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty) was officially listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Continue reading
Sep 29 How the Tylenol murders of 1982 changed the way we consume medication By Dr. Howard Markel Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1982, a tragic, medical mystery began with a sore throat and a runny nose. It was then that Mary Kellerman, a 12-year-old girl from Elk Grove Village, a suburb of Chicago, told her… Continue reading
Aug 15 Home run king Babe Ruth helped pioneer modern cancer treatment By Dr. Howard Markel Besides being a beloved baseball star, Babe Ruth was one of the first cancer patients to receive a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, a practice that doctors still use today. Continue reading