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Churchill, Stephen Poliakoff’s dad and a KGB-bugged hearing aid

Winston Churchill was prime minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions: firstly from 1940 to 1945 and then from 1951 to 1955. He was famed for his acute wit, insight and leadership qualities that helped him navigate the British...

Guillotines from Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin to Greenfield Sluder

Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin. The politician and physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) was so disgusted by brutal head and shoulder injuries sustained in ‘failed attempts’ by drunken axe-wielding executioners during the French Revolution that he and surgeon Antoine Louis (1723-1792) advocated not only...

A soprano’s demise: a cautionary tale for the thyroid surgeon

Prior to the mid-19th century, thyroid surgery was considered excessively dangerous. The emergence of anaesthetic, antisepsis and improved instrumentation, however, increased its feasibility and frequency in Europe. The unhurried, judiciously antiseptic and haemostatic approach, advocated by Kocher, was popularised and...

Down with the nose, down with it flat

In Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, Timon urges prostitutes to spread syphilis throughout Athens. He implores the whores, Phrynia and Timandra, to: Consumptions* sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,And mar men’s spurring*. Crack the lawyer’s voice**, That...

Diaphanoscopy of the paranasal sinuses (Halloween in ENT Practice)

Since time immemorial, humans have tried to enhance the limited capabilities of their sense organs. It would be a clear advantage to be able to see through objects and discern what lies inside or behind them! This concept of transillumination...

In conversation with Brian Westerberg and Fred Kozak

Dr Osler caught up with friends and colleagues, Dr Brian Westerberg, current IFOS Vice-President and IFOS 2021 World Congress President, and Dr Frederick Kozak, IFOS 2021 World Congress Vice-President and Scientific Committee Chair, to talk about their vision for the...

How will our grandchildren view COVID-19?

Alan Johnson, known to our readers as the former President of ENT UK, gives us his thoughts on the COVID pandemic, looking at it through the lens of other health crises. As I write, COVID-19 is displacing almost all other...

From Hippocrates to COVID-19: sniffing out the disease

The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, used the ‘art of smell’ to diagnose diseases around 400BC. He also formulated miasmatic theory, which posited that disease is caused by bad smells. Bad air was strongly believed by many physicians to be the...