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The renowned French composer and musician, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) exhibited a perplexing case of progressive degenerative neurological symptoms, namely amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, amusia, and alexia. The symptoms started when Ravel was only fairly young, at 57, five years prior to his death in 1937. He was surgically intervened in what was known then as an exploratory craniotomy and passed away. There are a number of publications in which his life and known medical history were dissected and analyzed in an attempt to diagnose the ailment that Ravel suffered. Many diagnoses have been considered, among them Alzheimer’s disease, Pick Disease, primary progressive aphasia, corticobasal degeneration, and complications of head injury following a car crash in 1932. Since an autopsy was not performed, an exact diagnosis is rather unlikely, and no one has been able to confirm or deny any of the aforementioned hypotheses. The authors conducted an extensive revision of existent literature and propose some original ideas regarding Ravel’s neurological condition, mainly the psychological impact of Ravel’s life and experiences and the way they may have influenced his musical genius.

This article presents the results of the first part of a study about the development of the internship in Colombian medical education. This first part offers a historical-chronological overview of the birth and development of the “internship” in European and North American medical practice, covering the period of time that begins with its appearance during Napoleonian government in France during the 19th century, and its transformation with the model proposed during the flexnerian reform in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, as a starting point for the understanding of the Colombian case.

As is true about many sciences, knowledge in medicine used to be kept under the utmost secrecy, private only to those few persons that devoted their lives to healing. Today, however, in the era of information, everybody knows and, more importantly, everybody wants to know about medicine. It is then when the existence of scientists willing and able to divulge technical knowledge for all people becomes crucial. For this purpose there was none other like Oliver Sacks. With his unique tell-tale writing style and his contagious smile, he was a beacon for patients and people stumbling in the dark, looking for answers, and an example for everyone in the field of neuroscience.

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Copyright of Revista de Medicina y Cine / Journal of Medicine & Movies is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)