The latest issue of the excellent and unusual journal Lapham's Quarterly, edited by former Harper's editor Lewis Lapham, is full of readings on the subject of medicine from writers from ancient Greece through modern times.
It's worth getting the whole thing, but you can get a taste online.
Read a page from the Nuremberg trials about experiments conducted on Nazi prisoners. Learn how leprosy was diagnosed in France in 1320: "... make the patient cover his eyes so that he cannot see, and say, 'Look out, I'm going to prick you!' and do not prick him. Then say, 'I pricked you on the foot,' and if he agrees, it is a sign of leprosy."
And don't miss Hildegard von Bingen on the therapeutic properties of whale meat or Rudyard Kipling's address to a group of physicians on the subject of doctors' responsibilities, privileges and role in society.
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Friday, 20 November, 2009
Recommended reading: Lapham's Quarterly
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