This compact book of 140 pages, a collection of nine essays, is a primer for the moral attitudinal development of the physician. Of the nine essays, seven were previously published in slightly different form in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, and Mosaic. One essay was given as a lecture to students and faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and another essay was presented to orthopaedic surgeons at the International Symposium of Academic Orthopaedic Manpower. The various essays are entitled, for example, "The New Physician," "Symbols and Symptoms," "Litterae, Scientia, et Humanitas," "Creativity in Medicine," and "Medicine in the Third Millennium." As the book is a compendium of essays, the chapters are not numbered, suggesting that each chapter is as important as any other and that the reader can read any single chapter with benefit and understanding.
The overriding theme of the essays is the humanistic aspect of the practice of medicine. For example, in "Symbols and Symptoms," the author suggests: "The effects of compassion and understanding are more difficult to define than those of morphine or digitalis, but they are often the major determinants of outcome. Science, the basic knowledge of our professional life, must not be substituted for, but added to, the quality of humanism." The author further notes: "Honest self-appraisal leads quickly to the realization that one is neither godlike nor omniscient; an awareness of the fine lines between inspiration, perspiration, and pure chance will allow you to rest comfortably under the cloak of humility that characterizes a professional."
In the chapter entitled "Litterae, Scientia, et Humanitas," the author notes: "Letters refers to the ability to speak and write precisely and clearly; Science speaks not only to mastery of known material but also to the development of new knowledge by application of the scientific method; Humanism refers to those basic values and qualities of the human spirit that make a physician sensitive to the feelings of his patients and to the social consequences of his actions." In the chapter entitled "Medicine in the Third Millennium," the author states: "The proliferation of technology has also encouraged specialization, which, in turn, has led to a loss of educational breadth. With knowledge in depth, one automatically purchases ignorance in breadth, resulting in less comprehension of the world around us and of the relatedness of the parts to the whole. Patients become disembodied appendages or specimens—at which moment they cease to be human beings."
This is a book to ponder. It is a book to read and reread. It is a book that serves as a reminder to all physicians that commitment, effort, humanism, and integrity are, as the author notes in the chapter entitled "The New Physician," the components of excellence that all physicians, old and new, should strive for.
Henry R. Cowell, M.D., Ph.D.
Editor
The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery
Needham, Massachusetts