MHSNJ Zoom Program—Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 7 pm
Speaker:         Richard Marfuggi, MD, DMH
Topic:             A Man of Science, A Man of Desire: Samuel Pozzi in the Belle Époque

Dr. Marfuggi has submitted the following summary of his talk:

The history of Medicine is filled with stories of colorful practitioners and patients. Perhaps one of the more colorful practitioners is Samuel Pozzi. Not only is he credited with pioneering the field of gynecology in France, but he is also known by the moniker Dr. Love.

 Pozzi cannot be pigeon-holed, as his prodigious medical talents were matched by his political, military, aesthetic, and amorous pursuits. This presentation will, I trust, take you on a romp through his life, punctuated with multiple tangents that reflect the facets of his extraordinary life.

About the speaker:

Dr. Marfuggi, a retired board-certified plastic surgeon, is a past president of the Medical History Society of New Jersey. He holds a Doctor of Medical Humanities degree. He has previously served in numerous professional capacities, including Medical Director of the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) on Medicine and Health Care, Medical Director of the WBB Research Institute (WBBRI), member of the Foreign Policy Association (FPA), Commissioner of the American Medical Association Foundation (AMAF), and presenter at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Dr. Marfuggi's interests, presentations, and publications focus on medical education, medical ethics, the American healthcare system, past and current pandemics, health equity, emerging biomedical technologies, and medical history.

A proud dilettante, Marfuggi is an avid reader and needleworker, as well as a patron of the theater and opera. He recently retired from the Metropolitan Opera after a 25-year career as an artistic supernumerary that included nearly 1,000 performances in over a dozen operas.

MHSNJ Zoom Program—Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 7 pm ET

Speaker:  Jeffrey M. Levine, MD, AGSF

Topic:       Secrets of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Vesalius

SUMMARY

Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica (“On the Fabric of the Human Body”), first published in 1543, stands as the cornerstone of modern anatomy.  Its detailed dissections, accompanied by artistically executed woodcuts, have long attracted the attention of scholars.  Yet, elements within the book’s elaborate frontispiece and richly decorated initials have received less scrutiny, if not been entirely overlooked.

This lecture explores those neglected visual details, uncovering hidden layers of medical history and bringing to light a Jewish presence that has remained invisible and overlooked through nearly five centuries of Vesalian scholarship. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Jeffrey M. Levine is a fellowship-trained geriatrician and nationally recognized expert in wound care and pressure injuries.  He graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, in 1981and is currently Clinical Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. 

Dr. Levine has published more than 50 papers and chapters, including the section on pressure injuries and wound care in the Geriatric Review Syllabus, published by the American Geriatrics Society, which is required reading for doctors studying to take the Geriatric Board Examinations.

As an armchair historian, one of Dr. Levine’s favorite topics is the life and works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels.