Scott H. Podolsky, MD
Samuel X Radbill Lecture, College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Time: 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Place: College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Event Type: Public event, ticket purchase required (click “Visit site” above to purchase ticket)
Speaker: Scott H. Podolsky, MD (Section on Medical History)
Sir William Osler praised Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) as “the most successful combination which the world has ever seen, of the physician and man of letters.” Today, Holmes is remembered as a physician for his investigation of the contagiousness of puerperal fever, for his advocacy for therapeutic skepticism, and for coining such terms as “anesthesia.” Holmes is celebrated as a literary and cultural figure for such poems as “Old Ironsides” (considered responsible for saving theU.S.S. Constitution), for his ground-breaking contributions to The Atlantic Monthly (which he named), and for terming Boston the “Hub of the solar system” and describing its “Brahmin” caste.
Holmes also had a longstanding – if complicated – relationship with Philadelphia, its physicians, and with the College of Physicians itself. It is fitting that a portrait of Holmes hangs in the office of the College’s Thomas W. Langfitt Chair, George Wohlreich. We’ll see why, especially in the context of the enduring relevance of Holmes’ medical humanism and skepticism.
Speaker: Scott H. Podolsky, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, where he is Director, Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library.
Sponsored by the College’s Section on Medical History