DMARTMOUTH EDICINE EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR Dana Cook Grossman

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Laura Stephenson Carter

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR hose who cannot remember the past are neticist in the year 2000 possibly have to learn from Sandy Adams condemned to repeat it,” observed philoso- Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), whose sin- ‘ EDITORIAL ASSISTANT pher George Santayana in his five-volume gle-lensed microscopes provided the first glimpse T Jonathan Weisberg opus, The Life of Reason. Santayana wrote those oft- human eyes had ever seen of one-celled life, or from quoted words (actually, oft-misquoted—usually the Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), whose simple though CONTRIBUTING WRITERS aphorism is rendered as “Those who do not know elegant experiments with first suggested Megan McAndrew Cooper Joseph J. Deffner history are condemned to repeat it”) almost a hun- the existence of ? Marta Hristova dred years ago, but they are still as true as ever. A lot, according to Matthew Megill, the author Matthew Megill Indeed, they are even truer than they’re usually of “Heart Failure.” Megill is a 2000 graduate of Roger P. Smith, Ph.D. Emily Reagle Transue, M.D. given credit for. Santayana’s maxim is most often Dartmouth College, and this article was adapted Catherine Tudish invoked in the world of politics—applied to leg- from his senior thesis—which won two classics islative wrangling, wartime strategizing, and (as we prizes. He has explored how it was that the great PHOTOGRAPHERS/ILLUSTRATORS are all only too aware in this presidential election 2nd-century Greek physician failed to dis- Mark Austin-Washburn Bonnie Bragg year) civic decision-making. Even the most con- cern the heart’s true function, for Galen knew much Suzanne DeJohn scientious voter would probably agree with 19th- about the organ’s structure, and none of the exper- Bert Dodson century French satirist Alphonse Karr’s assertion iments Harvey conducted would have been beyond Flying Squirrel Graphics Jon Gilbert Fox that “the more things change, the more they stay the methodologies of the 2nd century. The appar- David Holznagel the same.” There are only so many ways to strike a ent reason for Galen’s failure, Megill posits, pro- Maria Melin/ABC diplomatic compromise or to make an appeal to vides a powerful lesson for scientists of any era: to DESIGN CONSULTANT constituents or to wage figurative (or literal) battle. be sure that cultural bias doesn’t get in the way of Kate Siepmann In politics, therefore, it’s easy to see that one must careful observation and experimentation. be a student of the past in order to master the fu- EDITORIAL BOARD ture. Today’s global leaders ignore at their peril the earning about the history of can be Joan Crane Barthold, M.D., ’85 lessons to be learned from Nero and Nehru, from more than instructive—it can also be enter- James L. Bernat, M.D. Mary M. Green Lincoln and Louis XIV. L taining. Some people don’t need to be sold Mahlon B. Hoagland, M.D. Science, however, is more usually regarded as a on the fact that science is fascinating—for example, David Holznagel ’03 purely linear pursuit—we know more this year, this the enthusiastic researchers who are the subject of Katherine J. Little, M.D. Fred Louis III, DC ’58 decade, this century, than we did last year, a decade another feature in this issue (“Battling the CF Mon- Thomas L. McFarland ago, a century ago. And, we are confident, we’ll ster,” on page 38). But too many nonscientists are Joseph E. Melton, Ph.D., ’82 know more next year and a decade and a century convinced that science is dry and daunting. Maureen S. Micek, M.D., ’90 H. Worth Parker, M.D., HS ’75-83 hence than we do today. Yet consider the fact that a book called Microbe John H. Sanders, Jr., M.D. In 1950, for example, it was thought that stress Hunters, written in 1926 by Paul De Kruif, has been Heinz Valtin, M.D. and spicy food caused stomach ulcers. Now we in print nearly constantly for the past 74 years. I Jennifer Vines ’02 Hali Wickner know that a bacterium is to blame. In 1850, before happened to notice recently that the book—which Charles R. Wira, Ph.D., ’70 Joseph Lister elucidated the principle of antisepsis, is about the early giants of (including Derrik F. Woodbury, M.D., ’77 a surgeon might go right from the street or the sta- van Leeuwenhoek)—is described in customer re- EDITORIAL OFFICES ble to the operating table—which, in rural areas, views on Amazon.com as “humorous” and “hard to Mailing address: Dartmouth Medi- was often a kitchen table. And, as one of the fea- put down.” Microbe Hunters—which is indeed a cine, One Medical Center Drive tures in this issue points out (“Heart Failure,” on good read—betrays its age socially (in unenlight- (HB 7070), Lebanon, NH 03756 page 34), it was long thought that the heart was the ened racial attitudes) and in occasional scientific Delivery address: Dartmouth Medi- seat of emotion. It wasn’t until the 1600s that Wil- lapses (antibiotics hadn’t even been discovered cine, Two Buck Road (Door with Green Star), Hanover, NH 03755 liam Harvey proved the heart’s function is to cir- when it was written), but it’s up-to-the-minute in Phone: 603/650-4039 culate blood throughout the body. communicating the excitement of science. Fax: 603/650-4085 Given the inexorable progress in biomedical re- That’s what we try to do in Dartmouth Medi- E-mail: [email protected] search, what possible relevance could George San- cine as well. And although we haven’t been at it tayana’s injunction have to science? Why should quite as long as 74 years, with this issue we begin we bother to study what used to be “fact” but is now, our 25th year of publication! in fact, known to be wrong? What could, say, a ge- Dana Cook Grossman

2 Dartmouth Medicine Fall 2000