Iconic authors
Themes
Bibliography of the day
Sign or Destiny, the Old Border Between the Hippocratic Face and Physiognomy
Physicians have read approaching death in the face since Hippocrates. Physiognomists read character there. They share the same gaze but make opposite claims: one sees a passing state of the body, the other a destiny stamped on the person.
Safety in Numbers, the Lying-In Hospital and Its Shifting Verdict on Where Women Give Birth
Hospitals once promised safer births, then Nightingale's figures made the lying-in ward look deadlier than the home. Cleanliness reversed the verdict again. Each time, the answer followed the dominant danger: contagion inside, or neglect and distance outside.
