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Phineas Fletcher and The Purple Island

The Reverend Phineas Fletcher was a 17th century poet whose epic poem, The Purple Island describes the anatomy of the human body. Not only poets, but contemporary anatomists believed in two important concepts, correspondences and signatures. They thought that when...

The death of Attila the Hun, a 70s film and Japanese cartoons

The 6th century Gothic monk, Jordanes, tells us that Attila the Hun, the notorious and allegedly merciless barbarian (who was a prime mover in the fall of the Roman Empire), died of a nosebleed on his wedding night in 453...

Ear, nose and throat surgery in children – where will it be in 15 and 50 years?

Michael Kuo, David Albert and Mike Saunders have put their collective heads together to predict the future of ENT surgery in children; will there be a rise in workload due to increasing survival of children with complex medical problems? Or...

Misophonia: an audiologist’s perspective on recent research and assessment

From validated assessment tools to new insights into neural processing, recent research is redefining the audiologist’s role in understanding misophonia. Misophonia – literally “hatred of sound” – is a condition marked by disproportionate emotional and physiological reactions to specific trigger...

Hubert Struycken and his monochord: when otologists still played the violin

It is almost impossible to imagine audiometry today without electronic tone generators, digital electronics or computers. At the beginning of the last century, however, the otologist relied on much simpler tools: a pocket watch, a tuning fork, or a Galton...

Early Egyptian medicine: nasal trauma and surgery in the Edwin Smith Papyrus

In ancient Egypt, with its towering pyramids and bustling cityscapes along the Nile, there existed a deep-rooted civilisation that excelled in more than the grandeur of monumental architecture. Frequent wars and battles shaped Egyptian society, not only defining its political...

Beyond ‘sticky floors’ and glass ceilings’: eight women department and society leaders share their stories

In the United States and Canada, there have been a total of 12 women otolaryngologists who have achieved high positions of leadership. Eight of these women were interviewed for this piece. Each woman’s responses were thoughtful and truthful. Common themes...