From the Editor’s Desk: Medicine Past and Present

Excerpt

There are various ways to apply the history of medicine to contemporary medical practice. It can serve as a source of inspiration as we recognize, for example, the enduring nature of self-sacrifice and dedication to patient care. Or it can serve as a source of consternation and self-reflection, as we consider the limitations of healthcare providers and institutions in contributing to past and present inequities. At the very least, it can be an antidote to our own hubris, and perhaps help us consider current blinders. Take the example of Dr. George E. DeWitt (1842-1924), who penned “Some References to the Practice of Medicine, Then and Now” in 1916, toward the end of his career as medical health officer and mayor of the small Canadian town of Wolfville.¹ “Fifty years ago,” he wrote, a physician could perhaps help a single patient at a time. Then came the bacteriological revolution, with its diagnostic, preventive, and early therapeutic changes that protected whole communities at once. Cell culture and microscopy enabled the testing of local water supplies; anti-septic technique reduced maternal mortality from puerperal fever; and the arsenical compound “606” (salvarsan) promised a treatment for syphilis. The simplistic arc DeWitt crafted from medicine as the domain of individual healers to one of communally minded infectious disease experts was not entirely wrong, but it did preferentially showcase his own life’s work in public health, including a short stint at the head of a tuberculosis sanatorium. …