Babywearing: A new name for an old tradition
Index Home Words have a history, and so has "babywearing". As per Webster's dictionary, we used this word for the first time in the year 1989. It is the practice of…
Cardiac surgery: putting heart under a knife
Index Home In 1896 a textbook of surgery had noted that operating on a heart is impossible. Muscles of the heart are always in motion, and its chambers are always churning…
Wavy ECG gestures that make our heart to beat
Index Home We all live, without skipping a heart-beat. These are more than 25 billion beats over a life-time. Each of these beats means that our heart muscles have had a…
The history of hysteria, our frenzy of womb or mind
Index Home Jean Charcot A famous French Physician Hysteria is a state of emotional extreme. Today we know it as an uncontrolled frenzy or excitement, that may stem from intense happiness,…
Why did doctors shed their facial hair
Index Home Our previous blog was a gallery of medical personnel with flowing beards. These flowing beards, a sign of wisdom till late 19th century, slowly faded away. Yet, facial hair…
About flowing beards, wisdom and medical men
Index Home One of my postage stamp albums is about personalities. Quite like a 'Guess-who' game, you can never miss the flowing beards of many famous personalities, especially those who lived…
Bekhterev: A top Russian neurologist who had a mysterious end
Index Home The Lancet, a leading medical Journal in an article in its 2017 issue describes Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev as the most productive Russian scientist of his time. He published more than…
A doctor who was slaughtered with his 200 children
Index Home Each postage stamp is a window, not only to its glorious but also to its gory past. I came across one such 1978 postage stamp from Germany, on 100…
Yoga: An Indian cultural export to the world
Index Home Yoga is a centuries-old practice that combines physical, mental, and spiritual elements to promote overall well-being and harmony. The word means - "to join". It joins mind and the…
Round blood cells get curved to clog our vessels
Index Home Our red blood cells are spherical, slightly flattened on the top and the bottom. This shape allows them to squeeze through tiny blood vessels. A genetic disease that goes…