The Left Atrium

CMAJ The Left Atrium

Lifeworks The Future Triumph of Medical Science Over Cancer: a mural for oncology

he first half of the 20th-century Jorge Gonzàlez Camarena and many tions, including the main building of saw the birth of the Mexican others. Social security was an impor- Mexico’s National Autonomous Uni- T muralist movement, which, in tant step toward making health care ac- versity. At the Institute of Social Secu- the post-revolutionary period, was pri- cessible to everyone and the muralists rity Oncology Hospital, Siqueiros marily concerned with exalting the were enthusiastic about celebrating this painted The Future Triumph of Med- great social, technical and scientific through their paintings on the walls of ical Science Over Cancer, a 26-metre- movements that were taking place in these newly built hospitals.1,2 long mural painted in acrylic on Mexico and elsewhere in the world. The Institute of Social Security’s wooden panels that highlights the so- One of the areas that caught the mural- National Medical Center, built in 1963, cial implications of medicine and its ists’ interest and admiration was medi- is a large compound comprising sev- responsibility to the people — one of cine. To them, health was an innate eral hospitals and clinics. Among them the underlying principles of Institute right of the human race, thus it had to is the Oncology Hospital, one of Mex- of Social Security at that time.3 be available to the general population, ico’s leading oncological health care In the mural, a large assembly of peo- just like art and culture.1 centres. It was designed to be the flag- ple advances toward a group of doctors, The artists rejected canvas and ship hospital for the Institute of Social dressed in surgical gowns, located at the chose the large, open and public spaces Security and its creation had a pro- centre of the mural. The people are rais- of walls to deliver their images to the found social impact in that it provided ing their hands in a demand for health. public. Many of Mexico’s greatest mu- free, high quality health care. The dec- The body of a naked woman rests on a rals are located in health institutions. oration of the lobby of this building linear particle accelerator, from which a The National Institute of Cardiology, was commissioned to Siqueiros, an ac- beam of energy seems to shoot toward 2 the La Raza Hospital, the central of- complished muralist and fervent fol- grotesque creatures that represent cancer. fices of the Institute of Social Security, lower of communism. Siqueiros was The crowd surrounding the monsters the National Institute of Pediatrics and one of Mexico’s greatest painters, seems to cheer as the ray of science hits the National Medical Center all had alongside Rivera and José Clemente the dreadful personifications of disease their walls decorated by the frescoes of Orozco, and his oil paintings and mu- and death. The focal point of the mural is Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, rals can be found in the country’s most the handshake between the medical

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.080339 Juan O’Gorman, José Chávez Morado, important museums and public institu- profession and the people, represented Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis

David Alfaro Siqueiros, The Future Triumph of Medical Science over Cancer (1958). Acrylic over wooden panels. 26 × 2.45 m. A detail from the mural at the Institute of Social Security Oncology Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico.

by the doctor and the woman. The mural can bring to those in need. It is important movement, deeply influenced by the na- symbolizes the power of medicine as one to mention that most of the characters in tionalistic politics that followed the Rev- of the main driving forces behind the the mural, including the doctors, are olution, praised the importance of the well-being of the country and the hope it dark-skinned Mexicans. The muralist indigenous Mexican people in the new world order.1 Siqueiros’ fresco at the National Medical Center in Mexico City is a tes- tament to the power of oncology and an expression of admiration for the happi- ness and prosperity that medical science can bring to the people.

Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis MD Laboratorio de Biofísica Cardiaca Instituto de Fisiología Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Puebla, Mexico

REFERENCES 1. Instituto Méxicano del Seguro Social. Historia en los muros: Cinco muralistas y la seguridad social méxicana. Mexico: Secretaría General IMSS; 1977. 2. Iturbe S. Mural de José Chávez Morado en el Cen-

Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis tro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI. Revista Médica IMSS 2002;40(1):85-8. This detail of the 26-metre-long mural depicts the destruction of cancer, in the form of 3. De Orellana M, ed. Arte y arquitectura del Insti- monsters, to the delight of the cheering crowd. tuto Méxicano del Seguro Social. Mexico City, Mexico: Artes de México, IMSS; 2006

Book review Age is only another number

Old Endeavour: Scientific and Humanitarian In Old Endeavour, Dr. William are supplemented with personal infor- Contributions by Physicians over age 65 Gibson presents short biographies of mation, quotations and anecdotes. It is William C. Gibson over 100 physicians who continued to unexpected, and gratifying, to see so International Association for Humanitarian make significant contributions to med- many women represented, especially Medicine Brock Chisholm; 2007 ical science past the age of 65. The when one considers that becoming a 319 pp $30.00 ISBN 978-88-902020-1-8 book is a companion to his earlier physician at all was an impressive ac- book, Young Endeavour, published in complishment for a woman born in the 1958. Gibson is associated with the 19th- or early 20th-century. Readers hen do we become old? Faculty of Medicine at the University may also be pleasantly surprised to dis- Answering this question is of British Columbia, where he con- cover that certain widely recognized W rather like deciding at tributed to the development of the De- names in the Canadian medical com- what point high blood pressure be- partment of the History of Medicine munity are (or at least were at the time comes hypertension, or sadness be- and Science. That he completed this of publication) still alive and actively comes clinical depression. Age is ob- book at age 93 shows that important contributing to medical knowledge in jective, but old age is subjective. work can be done well into what we some capacity. Concepts such as frailty help to de- think of as old age. In the introduction, Gibson high- scribe physical and social vulnerabil- The individual biographies, each lights the “wasted intellectual talent ity, but there is no easy way to meas- fairly brief, include well-known figures due to enforced retirement.” He points ure that combination of attitude, such as William Harvey, Oliver Wen- out that age 65 was arbitrarily chosen creativity, flexibility and openness dell Holmes, Harvey Cushing and as the age for retirement in the 1880s, that separates those who are elderly William Osler, as well as a number of when the average lifespan was shorter. in spirit from those who are, as we lesser-known personalities. Accom- Now, the average life expectancy is

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.081478 often say, young at heart. plishments in the professional sphere hovering around 80, and the declining