VOLTAIRE MEDICINE HUMANITIES PARLANCE IATROGENIC LANGUAGE TERMINOLOGY CLASSICS MOAUGHAM DOYLE CHEKHOV MCCRAE ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS VOLTAIRE SCIENCE HIPPOCRATES ARS LONG VITA BREVIS ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS

"Doctors are men who prescribe medicine of which they know little,
to cure diseases of which they know less,
in human beings of which they know nothing."

Voltaire - pen name of Francois Marie Arouet ( 1694-1778) 

NB: Sciences may teach etiology, pathogenesis and pharmacy and for certain, Humanities teach about human beings. When combined, it is possible to reach minds and bodies, to transform therapies into health care.Voltaire ridiculed patients and physicians who jointly, by their clumsy speech often engender a host of iatrogenic complications. On this point, William Somerset Maugham (a physician) stressed that good Medicine rests upon lucid and simple speech. Some say that Medicine is departing from its classic roots - that medical education is solely focused on scientific innovations. Perhaps modern physicians no longer can be artists and must become "fee for service" artisans along with those dedicated to "pure" science who increasingly act as science technicians rather than scientists. Also perhaps, C. Doyle, A. Chekhov, J. McCrae, and physicians like them, who find inspiration in Humanities and courage in their patients. Mostly them can insure that Medical Ethics willl remain standing as it has since the origin of the imperative and realization of "Primum non Necere" (First do no harm) and  "Ars Longa - Vita Brevis"  ( Life is short - Art long - Opportunity fleeting - Experiment (experience) dangerous - Judgment difficult" attr. to Hippocrates) arose. [Ed.]