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VISUALIZING MEDICAL HISTORY the PHYSIOLOGY of RESPIRATION* by HENRY SEWALL, M.D

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VISUALIZING MEDICAL HISTORY the PHYSIOLOGY of RESPIRATION* by HENRY SEWALL, M.D VISUALIZING MEDICAL HISTORY THE PHYSIOLOGY OF RESPIRATION* By HENRY SEWALL, M.D. DENVER, COLORADO he President of the Colorado which new interest and new meaning might State Medieal Society, Dr. Boyd, be thrown around important persons and signalized his election to office by events of the past. effecting an addition to the pro­ My task has been frankly pedagogical in Tgram for the annual meeting which design,must and its progress convinced me that give it permanent distinction in the records. the scheme furnishes a method by which He has harbored the lofty ambition to have the student might profitably record the portrayed by means tangible to vision and evolution of his chosen science. to touch, as far as may be, the History of Somewhat similar devices have been Medicine. employed before, but no apology need be To the present writer was assigned the offered for another attempt to lure the task of representing in some way the interest of readers to the treasury of history progress of Physiology. The allotment was from which have been drawn the funds for accepted in the spirit with which we con­ our present buildings. This knowledge is a front the impossible: the whole cannot be key to understanding. Its discipline exer­ done, therefore its smallest fraction assumes cises the finest powers of mind and feeling. a relative importance in the calculus. In trying out the purpose under discus­ On reflection an idea was conceived, and sion my venture was restricted to the grew apace, that real help both in the learn­ history of a single field of animal physiology, ing and teaching of history could be gained that of Respiration. I am indebted to Dr. by coordinating the concepts of time and H. J. Corper for preliminary trials of the space in an objective picture. This would chart idea, and especially to Dr. Sanford provide the study of history with somewhat Withers, who has devoted his skill to the the same sort of aid that chemistry, preparation of the chart itself. physics or biology finds in its practical The calendar of our chart is represented demonstrations. in the column on the left. It will be noted It was determined to construct a chart that of one hundred and five biographical representing historical time on which should names recorded only eleven are included be allocated the names and life tenures of within the first twenty centuries; therefore the makers of a certain branch of science. but small space is allotted to each of these It seemed obvious that such visual localiza­ periods. But from the sixteenth to the tion of men must not only greatly assist the nineteenth century, inclusive, ample space memory in recalling their place in history is given to the division of each century but accentuate the relation of man to man into decades. and to the development of knowledge. No The family name of each personage, and argument should be needed for allying any under it the date of his birth and death, are visual device to historical representation. recorded within a rectangle which covers The cinema has amply demonstrated two decades on the chart, and is placed at its popular appeal in the field of portraiture. about the middle of his career. From the My own idea has been to stimulate unused middle of the lower side of each rectangle a association centers in the brain through line is drawn below to a point representing * Read before the San Diego County Medical the date of birth of the individual; similarly, Society, Jan. 5, 1926. from the upper side, above to a point cor- responding to the date of his death. The trust I have not prematurely buried any time of birth determines the order of our of my subjects. biographical index, the names following in A glance at the chart shows who were that relation from left to right and from contemporaries, as well as the temporal below upward. Decedents in the twentieth sequence of individuals. An attempt has century have their life lines terminated at been made to indciate by heavier lettering the beginning of that epoch, or the brackets one’s estimate of the predominant charac­ round their names impinge directly upon it. ters in the development of science. In five cases it was impossible to learn It was designed at the outset to append a the dates of death in time for this review. I legend to each name, setting forth the accomplishments of the person. This proved all were obliged to undergo purification.” impracticable, and it is advised that bio­ This usually consisted of a cold bath, per­ graphical data be preserved in a card index haps with salt, or they were treated with which, for teaching purposes, should form incense and fumigations, and a rigorous an important adjunct to the chart. It is diet or fasting was imposed. Among the obvious that overcrowding of names in the most impressive surroundings the votary late centuries could be avoided by broaden­ was permitted to approach the statue of ing the diagram. Possibly the chart should the god and offer sacrifice with prayers, and have been given the form of a triangle with even touch his diseased member to the base above. hand of the image. Genealogical tables begin at the top and As evening approached the final prepara­ are read downwards. First-class authority tions were made for the elaborate and final has advised that procedure here. But I pre­ course of treatment by incubation. Dressed fer to typify the development of knowledge in white, the patient was assigned a pallet as upward, like a tree. Again, economy of after placing sacrifices on the altar. The space might have been secured by omitting white-robed priest offered an impressive the blank period of the Dark Ages, but we prayer and the patient was enjoined to sleep should have thus lost the contrast with and fear nothing. In early morning the other times. priests, one of them in the costume of the If this chart awakens any interest, such god, returned bringing ointment to anoint will probably be manifested by attention the sick body, and sacred serpents, which directed to its omissions and derelictions. crept over the sleepers and were supposed Medical history and tradition cover some to whisper the remedy in the ear and some­ five thousand years antedating the Chris­ times to nip it. tian Era. Hippocrates could not have sprung “The experience of the night, acting on fuII-panopIied from chaos. We want to an overheated imagination, the assumed know the soil and the cultivation which appearance of the deity, possibly in the form made him possible. Through timely good of a serpent, and the application of the fortune Dr. W. A. Jayne, of Denver, has hand of the god—all in the dim light while in just given us an account of the religio- a state midway between sleeping and medical lore as culled from the earliest waking—were readily interpretated as a times. divine visitation, a celestial dream or When in earliest ancient Greece a man vision.” Thus the injunction to faith was greatly distinguished himself in any field he crystallized in a belief so strong that it is no was likely to be, as it were, canonized after wonder that most disorders might be his death and raised to the rank of a demi­ expected to receive amelioration by induc­ god and patron of the particular activities tion of a placid state of mind, and the in which he had been adept. Such was functional troubles be cured by suggestion. Asklepios, first mentioned by Homer in the Such, in general, was the method of applica­ Iliad as a “blameless physician.” tion of priest-medicine in all ancient coun­ So famous became the cures of intractable tries. It would be a grave error to assume diseases effected by his votaries that various that this therapeusis was guided by con­ healing shrines, or Asklepieia, became estab­ scious deceit. It was simply ingeniously lished throughout Greece, which were devised to get results. thronged by patients. It is a far cry from the times of treatment “Only the pure were permitted to of disease by incubation to the operations of approach the god, and on entering the hieron modern cults ofsimilar inspiration, but it may ‘ Jayne, W. A. The Healing Gods of Ancient well be doubted whether the modern methods Civilizations. New Haven, 1925. are as effective as were the ancient ones. In the unproductive centuries following “At his death Miiller’s chair was split Galen it would be interesting to depict into three, Du Bois Reymond took physiol­ how the germ of Greek Medicine was ogy, Virchow took pathological anatomy preserved by the long line of Arabian and and Reichert took morphology.” other scholars who marked time in the Carl Ludwig (1816-1895) must have march of knowledge through the Dark reflected some of the best characteristics of Ages. It would be desirable to apply the his master, Miiller. His was a gentle, serious, graphic method to the influence of the but withal humorous soul. There seemed to Church and of the Universities to be no vanity or selfishness in him. During the development of our knowledge. his years as professor of physiology at Adverse criticism could be fairly opposed Leipzig earnest students of research flocked to my choice of portraits for our gallery of to him from all over the world to the fame. Such comment, based on research, number, it is said, of more than three would itself be high reward. It has been my hundred.
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