Copyright
©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Aug 26, 2020; 12(8): 362-367
Published online Aug 26, 2020. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v12.i8.362
Published online Aug 26, 2020. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v12.i8.362
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 1836 doctorate dissertation and his journey in medicine
Stafford I Cohen, Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, MA 02215, United States
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interest regarding the manuscript “Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 1836 doctorate dissertation and his journey in medicine”.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Stafford I Cohen, MD, Emeritus Professor, Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, United States. scohen1@bidmc.harvard.edu
Received: March 9, 2020
Peer-review started: March 9, 2020
First decision: April 26, 2020
Revised: July 7, 2020
Accepted: July 19, 2020
Article in press: July 19, 2020
Published online: August 26, 2020
Peer-review started: March 9, 2020
First decision: April 26, 2020
Revised: July 7, 2020
Accepted: July 19, 2020
Article in press: July 19, 2020
Published online: August 26, 2020
Core Tip
Core tip: Oliver Wendell Holmes' 1836 Doctorate Dissertation on Acute Pericarditis has received little scrutiny since its publication 100 years after it was successfully defended at Harvard Medical School. The state of knowledge about pericarditis in the mid eighteen hundreds was unusually sound considering the inability to study tissue with microscopy. However treatment was a matter of opposing expert opinions and the fashion of the day in Paris was to disparage professors who disagreed. Paris was a mecca for students. Cadavers were plentiful for study. Lectures and clinics were free.