Medical Writing and Webster's Third
Authors: ROBERT P. HUDSON
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (1969)

The Literature of Medicine1 August 1969Medical Writing and Webster's ThirdROBERT P. HUDSON, M.D.ROBERT P. HUDSON, M.D.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-71-2-435 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptEnglish, the richest of languages, constructs some 1 million words from a mere 40 sounds. From the same sounds, I am told, we could easily make a million more—a terrifying thought in many ways. Language generally is seen as man's chief advantage over what we called the lower animals before someone discovered that cockroaches likely would survive a nuclear holocaust that destroyed all of man's kind.But language is not pure blessing. Aldous Huxley theorized that another characteristic unique to man—his periodic compulsion to slaughter large numbers of his kind—would not be possible without language (1). And indeed it is...References1. HUXLEY A: Words and Their Meanings, The Ward Ritchey Press, Los Angeles, 1940. Quoted in MD, April 1968, p. 64. Google Scholar2. Saint-Exupéry A: Le Petit Prince, Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 1934, p. 66. Google Scholar3. ARING CD: On writing for medical journals. Amer. J. Psychiat. 123: 81, 1966. CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. LORIMER GH: Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, in Familiar Medical Quotations, edited by STRAUSS, M.B., Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1968, p. 611. Google Scholar5. LOCKE J: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Quoted in MD, April 1968, p. 251. Google Scholar6. MD, September 1968, p. 163. This statement could not be verified in Encyclopaedia Britannica, which says only fragments of Chrysippus' writing remain. Google Scholar7. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 7: 340, 1956. Google Scholar8. MACDONALD D: The string untuned. The New Yorker, March 10, 1962. Google Scholar9. Ibid. Google Scholar10. In Familiar Medical Quotations, edited by STRAUSS, M. B., Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1968, p. 671. Google Scholar11. BEAN W: A testament of duty. J. Lab. Clin. Med. 39: 8, 1952. Google Scholar12. FISHBEIN M: Talking the same language. Med. World News, June 16, 1967, p. 132. Google Scholar13. BOGEN J: Glissando electronarcosis: some semantic confusions in psychiatric electrotherapy. Dis. Nerv. Syst. 24: 401, 1963. MedlineGoogle Scholar14. FABINGMARR HR: Fischerisms, in Familiar Medical Quotations, edited by STRAUSS, M. B., Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1968, p. 611. Google Scholar15. Right if you say you are—obscurely. Time, December 30, 1966, p. 14. Google Scholar16. WYLIE P: Generation of Vipers, Rinehart & Co., Inc., New York, 1942, p. 95. Google Scholar17. NICOLLE C: Les responsibilités de la médecine, in Familiar Medical Quotations, edited by STRAUSS, M. B., Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1968, p. 610. Google Scholar This content is PDF only. To continue reading please click on the PDF icon. Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: *Parenthetically, I was dismayed to find Webster's first definition of croon as, "to make a continuous hollow sound." I wonder if Bing Crosby has been told. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 1 August 1969Volume 71, Issue 2Page: 435-438 Issue Published: 1 August 1969 PDF DownloadLoading ...