Rediscovering the wheel: Using the past to influence the future

R. F. Mazzola

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-46326-9_1

Rediscovering the wheel: Using the past to influence the future

R. F. Mazzola

Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda- Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Very often scientific publications begin with the pompous words: A new technique for., or An innovative method for.. But are these procedures really new? The French physician and philosopher Émile Littré (1801-1881) wrote the following in the foreword of his Oeuvres complètes d'Hippocrate (Complete Works of Hippocrates): There is no development, even the most advanced of contemporary medicine, which is not found in embryo in the medicine of the past [12]. This opinion is easy to demonstrate by doing some research in a historical library. One will discover that old books not only provide palpable contact with the medical past, but also serve to establish the precedence of an idea, a theory or a technique. Regrettably, we often realise that most of the so-called new techniques derive from ideas which were already published but then forgotten. Numerous examples exist, but we restrict our list to just a few for obvious reasons.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Innovations in Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Pages	3-10
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	9783540463214
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46326-9_1
Publication status	Published - 2008

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Medicine(all)

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10.1007/978-3-540-46326-9_1

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abstract = "Very often scientific publications begin with the pompous words: A new technique for., or An innovative method for.. But are these procedures really new? The French physician and philosopher {\'E}mile Littr{\'e} (1801-1881) wrote the following in the foreword of his Oeuvres compl{\`e}tes d'Hippocrate (Complete Works of Hippocrates): There is no development, even the most advanced of contemporary medicine, which is not found in embryo in the medicine of the past [12]. This opinion is easy to demonstrate by doing some research in a historical library. One will discover that old books not only provide palpable contact with the medical past, but also serve to establish the precedence of an idea, a theory or a technique. Regrettably, we often realise that most of the so-called new techniques derive from ideas which were already published but then forgotten. Numerous examples exist, but we restrict our list to just a few for obvious reasons.",

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