Abstract

The practice of medicine has changed significantly during the past few decades. The enormous increase in the corpus of knowledge makes it virtually impossible for any one physician to be fully knowledgeable about all aspects of one’s primary specialty. Objective, sophisticated tests with high specificity and high sensitivity relentlessly replace, rather than complement, subjective clinical acumen and intuition. Algorithms and guidelines are often used instead of clinical judgment to select a treatment strategy. The art of medicine is steadily sacrificed on the altar of evidence-based data, and the practice of medicine is becoming more of a science and less than an art. One may therefore wonder what is the use of having a book containing a compilation of quotes from a clinician who practiced mostly in the 19th century and died in 1919, before the discovery of the electrocardiogram, computed tomographic scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and even antibiotics. Could such a physician contribute anything to today’s practice of medicine?