Mike Magee “If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.” ― St. Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Jesuit Order The Pope’s passing interrupted an epic battle between Trump and the rest of the civilized world over whether America remains a […]
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The Birth of The Germ Theory
Mike Magee When Yellow Fever broke out shortly after the arrival of a trading ship from Saint-Dominque in Philadelphia among colonists with no immunity in 1793, the main response was panic, fear, and mass evacuation from the city. Five thousand citizens, roughly 10% of the population, including Alexander Hamilton and his wife, fled. Experts were […]
Mike Magee I. Florence Nightengale and Sidney Herbert Order had always been part of Florence Nightingale’s life. Her father was William Edward Shore, a Country Squire, who at age 21 inherited his rich uncle’s huge fortune as well as his name. On his death, the younger (now) Nightingale, seamlessly managed the profits of the family’s […]
Mike Magee If there was an All-Star team for 20th Century Medicine, two members of the roster would likely be William Welch and William Osler, two of the “Big Four” founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. (The other two were surgeon William Stewart Halsted and obstetrician Howard Atwood Kelly.) Welch served as the […]
Mike Magee If you enter a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts on any given day, it is more than likely that you will exit with roughly half the maximum recommended daily dosage of caffeine in a hot or cold coffee beverage. No surprise here. But you may be surprised to know that your caffeine hit is […]
Mike Magee Question: What is the world’s most widely used psychoactive drug? Answer: Caffeine In the U.S., caffeine is consumed mainly in the form of coffee, tea, and cola. But coffee dominates. Worldwide, humans consume over 10 million tons of coffee beans a year. Roughly 16% (1.62 million tons) is devoured by Americans. The daily […]
Mike Magee It has been estimated that a medical student learns approximately 15,000 new words during the four years of training. One of those words is sphygmomanometer. the fancy term for a blood pressure monitor. The word is derived from the Greek σφυγμός sphygmos “pulse”, plus the scientific term manometer (from French manomètre). While medical students are quick to memorize and […]
