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THE ENCOURAGING LESSON OF TODAY IS THAT THE FUTURE OF MEDICAL DISCOVERY IS IN GOOD HANDS, AND PLENTY OF THEM
Sherwin B. Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at Yale University, wrote the 1994 National Book Award winner How We Die and The Wisdom of the Body, recently published by Knopf.
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Both Virchow and Lister faced not only opposition but scorn
until the medical mandarins of the day were finally brought
around to admitting the truths on which the scientists' work was
based. Lister, in particular, was ridiculed or ignored by his
fellow surgeons, who refused to acknowledge the marvels he was
accomplishing. But he forced himself to overcome his own gentle
nature, persisting with the zeal of an evangelist. In the end,
honored by Queen Victoria as Baron Lister, he lived to see his
name ranked with those of the greatest medical thinkers of all
time. As for Virchow, so revered did his theories make him that
he came to be admiringly called "the pope of German medicine."
There are no new Listers or Virchows in the pages that follow, but the stories told are of healers who share those same qualities that have always been at the heart of medical innovation. Their contributions may not occupy entire chapters in future textbooks, but they have nonetheless helped many patients who might otherwise never have been relieved of their suffering. The men and women portrayed here are not so much icons as they are representatives of the kind of people who change medical care. The contributions of some are not, in fact, unique. Others are engaged in similar endeavors for similar reasons, and their work might just as appropriately have been chosen to illustrate the story of medical accomplishment in our time. And this, of course, is the real lesson of this special issue of TIME: The future of medical discovery is in good hands, and plenty of them. The vision to see that things can be done better, a belief in principle, the conviction that comes with confidence in the correctness and value of what one is doing, and a strength of spirit that overcomes the inertia of long-established custom--these are ingredients without which the work cannot be accomplished. While genius is somes a factor, the tales in this issue tell of doggedness, common sense and the simple wish to help the sick or injured. Though some of the contributions described here were the result of a few bursts of inspiration, there is not one that would have reached fulfillment were it not for the sense of personal responsibility that fueled its originator's persistence during the day-by-day grind necessary for success. In this, medicine is no different than any other form of endeavor. For when all is said and done, it is the perspiration that makes the difference. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made the point much more elegantly: The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.
| 2,397 Years of Progress | |