This set of essays on the benefits of history for medical practice is the first of its kind. Twenty-three physicians, who are also accomplished historians, write autobiographically about how they use history in practicing medicine. Sometimes it suggests a brilliant diagnosis of effective treatment. At other times, it consoles and encourages, not with inspirational tales of discovery and triumph but with reminders of the timelessness of medical uncertainty, weariness, and despair. History also prescribes a sobering antidote for the arrogance that tracks life in medicine like an occupational hazard. The authors are from five countries and diverse specialties. Acclaimed writer and surgeon, Sherwin Nuland, describes the sudden presence of history in the operating room. Martensen, Bryan, and Cule each discover a stalwart ally when they confront terrifying new plagues. Psychiatrists Belkin and Braslow rely on history to comprehend difficult patients (and themselves). To pediatricians Markel, Baker, Schalick, and Shein and to nephrologists Moss, it exposes the transience of diseases, both new and old. Internists Crenner, Humphreys, and Moulin are guided by history through helplessness at the bedsides of the dying. Hematologist Duffin draws on archival sources to diagnose the blood and behavior of a mysterious blue nun. Comfortable with crossing boundaries of time, historical learning eases travel over other boundaries of culture, race and experience.

1. Clio in the Clinic: An Introduction, Jacalyn Duffin CONSULTING THE PAST 2. The Night I Fell in Love with Clio, Sherwin B. Nuland 3. Speculum Medicinae: Reflections of a Medievalist-Clinician, Walton O. Schalick FACING EPIDEMICS 4. A Wartime "Plague" in Crotone, John Cule 5. Plagues and Patients, Robert L. Martensen 6. Coping with the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Charles S. Bryan REVIVING DEFUNCT DISEASES "La Crise"Anne Marie Moulin 7. Floating Kidneys, Sandra W. Moss 8. Historical Adventures in the Newborn Nursery: Forgotten Stories and Syndromes, Jeffrey P. Baker 9. Susan and the Simmonds-Sheehan Syndrome: Medicine, History, and Literature, Carla C. Keirns RECOGNIZING NEW DISEASESr 10. The Histories of a History: the boy, the Baron, and the Syndromes, Max Shein 11. Who says You Have to Crawl Before You Walk? Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Crawling, and Medical History, Howard Markel MAKING A DIAGNOSIS 12. "An Appalling Sudden Death" Explained Seventy-Six Years Later, T. Jock Murray 13. One Blue Moon, Jacalyn Duffin PRESCRIBING THE "RIGHT" TREATMENT 14. William Withering's Wonderful Weed, Richard J. Kahn 15. Dr. Heisenberg, Are You Certain About the Diagnosis?, Paul Berman EXPLAINING DIFFERENCES 16. Trust and the Tuskagee Experiments, Joel D. Howard 17. Beware the Poor Historian, Margaret Humphreys 18. We are All Historians: Thoughts about Doing Psychiatry, Gary S. Belkin CONFRONTING FUTILITY 19. Timeless Desperation and Timely Measures, Joel T. Braslow 20. A Brief History of Timelessness in Medicine, Christopher Crenner 21. How Medical History Helped Me (Almost) Love a V.A. Hospital, Steven J. Peitzman WHEN CLIO FALTERS 22. What Do You Know? Cancer, History, and Medical Practice, Barron H. Lerner 23. Seeing Through Medical History, Russell C. Maulitz

"These essays succeed on many levels. At the most fundamental, they can be read as medical memoir, for pure enjoyment; several contributors are gifted writers. They can also be recommended for medical trainees, and for clinicians in general, as an excellent example of the medical humanities forming an inextricable part of practice-contributing directly to clinical reasoning, rather than artifically appended to it later."--JAMA |k No