Curiosities Of Medicine Research Articles

The Tattooed Connection: Nurturing Curiosity in Medicine.

The Tattooed Connection: Nurturing Curiosity in Medicine.

Frederick Edward Smith: 1920–2012

Frederick Edward Smith: 1920–2012

Transient global amnesia during a professional cello concert

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a great curiosity in medicine, the underlying pathophysiology of which remains under debate. When an episode occurs during the performance of a task requiring refined technical skills and an intense level of concentration such as a musical performance, it draws attention to the relationship between memory and performance. It also raises questions of access to procedural memory and other aspects of stored information. We encountered a renowned and highly proficient musician who was amnestic for a challenging concert.

Queer Physiognomies; Or, How Many Ways Can We Do the History of Sexuality?

An anthropological pamphlet from 1934 features a series of photographs and illustrations that had become common to the genre of "scientific" pictorial display in the early twentieth century: images of naked tribal women, transvestism, bearded women, Siamese twins, female homosexuality, and dwarfism, to name just a few. The pamphlet proclaims its "500 authentic racial-esoteric" images to be "after the originals from scientific explorations, field studies and museum archives" and has as its aim the documenting of "racial peculiarities," "fetishism," "aberrations and perversions," "freaks and other abnormalities," along with "the erotic life of savage and civilized races of mankind" (see figs. 1 and 2). By the time of this pamphlet's appearance, the publication in America of George Gould and Walter Pyle's Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1896) had already made available the country's most famous human aberrations, and the practice of the "freak photograph" had become an established tradition. Photographer Matthew Brady, eminent for his images of Civil War soldiers and their war-torn bodies, ran a studio in New York City's Bowery where he gained another kind of notoriety for his portraits of Tom Thumb, Chang and Eng, the Fiji Cannibals, and other human oddities. Not only thought to be scientifically useful but also in actuality hugely popular, these photographs illustrate what Henry James has called an "American scene"—a world preoccupied with observation, supervision, and the intrigues of a new technology. That fin de siècle rite of being photographed—in family portraits, medical studies, cabinet cards, and cartes de visite—inaugurated what would become, and remains, a resounding interest in the contours of the visible body. Remarkable about these curiosities is the chain of connection they produce among a range of bodies designated odd and peculiar. This chain generates a kind of categorical promiscuity that blurs any readily decipherable intention or purpose that we might expect from a scientific treatise. In the [End Page 71] Click for larger view Figure 1 "A Private Anthropological Cabinet of 500 Authentic Racial-Esoteric Photographs and Illustrations, . . . arranged by . . . Robert Meadows" (1934), plates 360-63. Property of Duke University Medical Center Library, History of Medicine Collections, Durham, N.C. By permission of Duke University Medical Center Library.

A curiosity in medicine.

A curiosity in medicine.

Curiosities of Medicine.

Mr. Roueche has gathered together 20 unusual articles of much interest, not only to physicians, but to well-read laymen. The first article, by Samuel Hopkins Adams, describes vividly the nightlong terrible suffering that followed a bite by a widow spider. wasn't exactly pain, Mr. Rogers continued, went up by back like a hell-fire, up to my neck and across my shoulders.... It went down, way to the toes of both legs, and up and down in waves. My muscles all knotted tight. The distribution of his pain was unusual; most people have it mainly in their abdomen—as did a Mr. Bradberry. A Mrs. Duncan, when stung by a black widow, felt as if knives were slashing her. A physician, Dr. A. W. Blair, let himself be bitten by a spider in order to learn more about the poisoning. He learned a lot! One day, an expert on

Curiosities of Medicine.

I do not believe there is any field of human interest that is more pertinent at times, more impertinent at others, and more irrelevant at still others, than that of a person's own private individual experiences with medical problems and diseases. It has been a great surprise to me that no perceptive anthologist, critic, or reviewer had gathered together for shock effect, for illumination, or indeed for the edification of the barely literate and even the illiterati, a sample of the fantastic experiences that occur within the domain of clinical medicine. The experience of almost any active physician could supply one or more. Most physicians are inclined to pass these things off as all in a day's work. Although Berton Roueché in his<i>Curiosities of Medicine</i>does not come anywhere close to the exotic memorabilia and sideshow extravaganza of Gould and Pyle, and may not achieve the suavity of a

Curiosities of Medicine: An Assembly of Medical Diversions 1552-1962

Rarely have essays of such diverse character and origin been assembled between covers. The book opens with a<i>New Yorker</i>article by Samuel Hopkins Adams on the black widow spider. (Her consort, we are told, seldom has the luck to become a black widower, owing to the female's "shrewish habit of eating him shortly after mating... putting him to the double purpose of bed and board.") This is followed by a 16th century physician's classical description of "sweating sickness," admirably rendered into modern English by the editor. There is reprinted a 1962Journalcommunication on glue-sniffing, after which René and Jean Dubos discuss romantic 19th century views of tuberculosis ("Is it possible that genius is only scrofula?" asks Elizabeth Barrett Browning). And so the book proceeds: indisputable classics (Snow on cholera, Beaumont on digestion, Withering on foxglove) interspersed with engrossing but probably less enduring works (Montagu on yawning, Lindner on

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

An excision of abdominal fat apron (Surgical Technique and Report of a case)

Extreme degrees of obesity have from time immemorial excited the interest and comments of the less obese. Among the anomalies and curiosities of medicine collected by Gould and Pyle 1 reference is made to instances of remarkable obesity. He reports well-authenticated records of persons who weighed more than 700 lb. and suggests that the reference to a Baltimore Negro woman weighing 850 lb. and to a man from North Carolina in 1798 weighing more than 1,000 lb. may very well be accurate. Some extremely obese persons have a peculiar fat distribution resulting in an apron of fat hanging from the lower abdomen. A number of these adipose panniculi have extended to the knees or even to the ankles and weigh more than 50 lb. Some of the persons so afflicted have their body fat distributed in great masses over the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and upper arms, the head, neck, lower

INTRODUCTION

Congenital Malformations, once considered as rare curiosities of medicine, have been recognized in recent years as an important source of human morbidity and mortality. Consequently, investigators in many medical fields have shown an increasing interest in questions concerned with the etiology and morphogenesis of congenital malformations. The science of teratology which had been neglected somewhat during the last few decades by the medical profession has been revived as a branch of medicine. Yet communications between teratologists working in the basic sciences and those interested in clinical problems of congenital malformations have not been good, and it appeared that a real need existed for a conference in which teratologists working in different branches of medicine could meet, establish contacts and exchange ideas. Such a conference took place on January 12 and 13, 1956, at the College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati. It was sponsored by the Human Embryology and Development Study Section, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health, and by the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children, New York, New York. From the beginning it was decided to keep the group of participants small and the proceedings informal. Ten of the participants gave 20-minute papers designed to provoke debate. Neither the papers nor the excellent ensuing discussions were recorded, as no plans had been made for publication of the proceedings. However, as the conference progressed, there was an increasing demand for publication of the papers presented and Mr. L. W. Mayo, Doctors J. V. Neel, B. M. Patten, J. G. Wilson and I were charged with the task of exploring the possibilities of bringing the proceedings before a larger medical forum.

Association News

<h3>MEDICAL BROADCASTS Columbia Broadcasting System</h3> The American Medical Association broadcasts on a Western network of the Columbia Broadcasting System each Thursday afternoon on the Educational Forum from 4: 30 to 4: 45, central daylight saving time. The next three broadcasts will be as follows: September 27. Swimming Pool Sanitation, J. F. Hammond, M.D. October 4. Autumn Leaves, W. W. Bauer, M.D. October 11. Multiple Births, W. W. Bauer, M.D. <h3>National Broadcasting Company</h3> Through the courtesy of the National Broadcasting Company, the American Medical Association will resume broadcasting over the blue network on Oct. 2, 1934. Broadcasts will be scheduled each Tuesday afternoon from 4 to 4:15, central standard time. The number of stations, and their identity, to which this program will be available will be published inThe Journalas soon as available. Topics and speakers for October are as follows: October 2. Curiosities of Medicine, Morris Fishbein, M.D. October

FOREIGN BODIES IN STOMACH

This case is reported because of its general interest and to add it to the literature on the curiosities of medicine. M. H. L., a woman, aged 46, married, was admitted to the State Hospital at Central Islip, Feb. 10, 1932. The diagnosis was involution melancholia with suicidal tendencies. Sept. 6, 1933, she vomited and complained of constipation. A large hard mass was palpable in the upper left quadrant of the abdomen. Liquid petrolatum and enemas were administered daily, with little appreciable effect on the mass. September 11, a roentgenogram showed a mass of what appeared to be metallic spoons in the stomach. September 12, a laparotomy was performed. An incision was made in the upper anterior surface of the stomach and the following objects were removed: forty-eight teaspoons, one teaspoon handle, three bolts, one nut, one prune pit, one button, one small piece of glass, two pieces of spring

PRIMARY ABDOMINAL PREGNANCY

The rarity of primary abdominal pregnancy is too well recognized to require any especial emphasis. Although case reports have appeared in the literature sporadically, a critical survey reveals the fact that the majority of the cases are not primary implantation of the ovum on the peritoneum but are secondary to tubal abortion or ruptured tubal pregnancy. Statistics of Hecker 1 recorded the primary twice as frequently as the secondary type, but, according to Williams, 2 careful study of the specimens showed that most of them were secondary to ruptured tubal pregnancy. As a matter of fact, some writers, notably Bland Sutton, 1 have denied the existence of such a condition. Gould and Pyle 3 failed to mention this condition in their Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. In a review of 156,000 cases of pregnancy at the New York Lying-In Hospital, Harrar 4 found 10 cases of apparent primary abdominal pregnancy,

Tabetic Spinal Osteo-Arthropathy

OF the various lesions which affect the spine there have been few so rare as the osteo-arthropathy occurring in tabes. Considered almost as a curiosity in medicine, this particular affection of the spine has been observed but sixty times since first discerned by Charcot, now almost fifty years ago. Hidden in the lumbar region, producing deformity but not pain, stealthy in its onset, relatively benign in the type of its manifestations, it gives no inkling of its presence to either patient or physician, and is found out only through chance or purposeful search. The few cases in the literature well attest the retiring nature of this arthropathy. Frank (1), in 1904, could find but twenty-six cases for his Sammel-Referate, which he published in that year. During the two ensuing decades occasional mention of the condition was made, and in 1923 Henri Roger (2), writing in the Paris Medical, estimated the total number of cases to be about sixty. Since then but one additional report of a case has been published, t...

Early Conception Following Labor.

LaPorte, Ind., Oct. 10, 1899. To the Editor: —Gould and Pyle, in their work Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, mention several cases of early conception after a preceding pregnancy varying from forty hours to twenty-eight days. I desire to place on record another case: Mrs. B. was delivered on Dec. 5, 1898, of a girl. On September 27, 1899, she was again delivered of a boy at full term. She must have become pregnant on or about Dec. 27, 1898, just twenty-two days after the delivery of her first child. Yours truly,

Recent Literature Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine . Being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from ils origin to the present day, abstracted, classified, annotated and indexed. By George M. Gould, A.M., M.D., and Walter

Recent Literature Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine . Being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from ils origin to the present day, abstracted, classified, annotated and indexed. By George M. Gould, A.M., M.D., and Walter

Anomalies and curiosities of medicine

The LaryngoscopeVolume 2, Issue 5 p. 331-331 Book Review Anomalies and curiosities of medicine First published: May 1897 https://doi.org/10.1288/00005537-189705000-00022AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume2, Issue5May 1897Pages 331-331 RelatedInformation

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine: Being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day, abstracted, classified, annotated and indexed.

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