History of Medicine
William Gosset: A True Student
Today I attended a Basic Epidemiology class meant for the undergraduate students as I thought it would be good to brush up on my basic knowledge. The topics for the day were Hypothesis Testing and An Introduction to Randomized Controlled Trials, both pretty important ones, no matter which level you are studying at. What struck […]
Remembering Tinsley Harrison, the Oslerphile Physician
The past few weeks have been very demanding on me and I have not had the best of times, either on the personal or on the professional front. So, today, I took a break from the usual drudgery of life and decided to take a step back and remind myself of the bigger picture of […]
Comic Book Meets Medicine: Little Orphan Annie
One of the classic histopathological signs that we read of in Pathology quite often is the Orphan Annie Eye nucleus seen in Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. This odd name has an interesting history behind it. One that dates back to two popcult references – one at the fag end of the 1800s and one […]
Trendelenberg vs Trendelenburg: What’s in a name?
I have a slew of exams lined up and am recovering from a (suspected) repetitive stress injury of the right wrist. Combined, they have managed to keep me offline long enough to stay off the blog. But since yesterday my wrist has been feeling a little more supple and hence, this post. Not much of […]
Charles Beevor: The Sign of a “Bloody” Jerk
Forgive the hyperbolic title. Do not take offense and read on before hating on me. Please note the post script for added justification for this inflammatory title, if you so feel. Thanks. Now on with the main show! Not the best known of neurologists, history has not been very kind to this amicable gentleman, who […]
Santiago Ramon y Cajal: The Craftsman of Science
Scientists often are classed to be a group who are so lost within the intricacies of their vast subjects that they forget to look out into the world or explore the horizons of other specialties. We often tend to stereotype scientists into certain classes and blocks based on the achievements they garnered in their respective […]
When Diseases Talk: Tuberculosis and Its Impression on Literature
A skiagram of the chest, showing miliary mottling, suggestive of Pulmonary Koch’s Disease in both lungs. there is also an opacity of the right upper lobe suggestive of active pulmonary disease. Patient was an 84 year old man, with a long history of TB for the treatment of which he was a multiple defaulter. The […]
Argyll Robertson: Better Be His Pupil, Than Have It!
Argyll Robertson pupils (“AR pupils”) are bilateral small pupils that constrict when the patient focuses on a near object (they “accommodate”), but do not constrict when exposed to bright light (they do not “react” to light). This condition is colloquially referred to as the “Whore’s Eye” because of the association with tertiary syphilis and because […]
Valentine’s Day Special: John Hunter
In this special series, I will try to head up to Valentine’s Day with a series of posts to celebrate the day of love with posts not quite so pink and rosey. And I will start with the volatile Scottish surgeon: John Hunter! Yeah. You read that right! Read on, to understand why I chose […]
Nikolay Pirogov: 200 Years to Nowhere
I had heard of Nikola Pirogov as one of the early propounder of Anesthesia in surgery and also as the father of field surgery. It came to my attention that a BMJ Blog was written to celebrate the hero that he was HERE. I must say I did not know that he was that huge a figure in […]
Robert Edwards’ Nobel Prize Revives Memories of an Unsung Indian Pioneer
While the world stands up to salute Robert Edwards for being acknowledged with the Nobel Prize, another pioneer of this field goes largely unnoticed. Subhash Mukherjee, an Indian physician, based in Kolkata, West Bengal, was part of a team comprising of Cryobiologist Sunit Mukherji and Gynecologist Dr. Saroj Kanti Bhattacharya, who managed to create India‟s […]
