Tired and afraid
'Tired and afraid' is a poem that could be about any one of a number of patients I have met over the past few years. But its not. It's about a man I recently met whose words are hard to forget. I doubt I was of much help.
Category Literary Medicine
Smith, Bell, and the Art of Observation
Sir Sydney Smith had humble beginnings in a village at the heart of the Otago gold fields, near the southern tip of New Zealand. After a stint in the New Zealand Army during the First World War and a colourful career as a medical investigator in colonial Egypt, he went on to hold the Chair of Forensic Medicine in Edinburgh.
Invictus
No matter the nature of your afflictions, Henley's poem 'Invictus' will cover you in a shroud of invincibility and infuse you with an unconquerable spirit...
The Dark Knight
Consider a case of headache in a young female. This is what her quite unusual and revealing CT head showed: If you can guess the cause of her headaches, her underlying diagnosis, and can work out what “batman’s eyes” are…
Conversations with our Fathers
When I was thirteen years old, my father told me about the Milgram Shock Experiment. I vividly remember sitting at our kitchen table as he told me that study participants willingly dialed up the voltage of an electric shock on…
Physiology of Inspiration
Michelle Johnston takes a lesson from the classics to explore the physiology of inspiration
Nothing New Under the Sun
Our planet seems a panoply of despair, a train wreck of evil choices. Take a moment to consider, the world still hurts
Household Words Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Medical Instincts. Charles Dickens Household Words periodical (1850) examining a rather extraordinary clinical encounter.
Household Words Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Assault as Therapy. Charles Dickens Household Words periodical (1850) examining a rather extraordinary clinical encounter.
Household Words Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The ethics of suicide. Charles Dickens Household Words periodical (1850) examining a rather extraordinary clinical encounter.
Household Words Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - The Presentation. Charles Dickens Household Words periodical (1850) examining a rather extraordinary clinical encounter.
Household Words
Household Words the weekly periodical edited by Charles Dickens first publichsed in 1850 examining a rather extraordinary clinical encounter.