This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letters  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Humanities  • History of Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Conflicting Medical and Popular Ideas About Old Age

Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:2074-2078.

William Osler (1849-1919) has long been hailed as one of the most illustrious physicians in our history. Yet, Osler's claim to fame outside the medical profession in the early 20th century was through what became known as The Fixed Period controversy about the usefulness of old men. In 1905, as the 55-year-old Osler said farewell to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before leaving for Oxford University in England he remarked that men older than 60 years should be retired. He further mentioned a suggestion, which he attributed to Anthony Trollope's novel The Fixed Period, that men older than that age be chloroformed. This article explores the public reaction to Osler in the context of early 20th-century American ideas about old age and manhood. As our society has changed over the past century, so have our ideas about old age. The Fixed Period incident offers us an opportunity to explore the relationship between medical and popular ideas about old age. This historical perspective allows us to see that physicians have not always had authority over old age and that public understanding and medical pronouncements on old age do not necessarily match.

Laura Davidow Hirshbein, MD, PhD
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED LETTERS

Osler, Old Age, and Dock
Tsung O. Cheng
Arch Intern Med. 2002;162(6):719.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

No Cutoff Date for Active Pursuits
Anita Y. Agzarian and Alice E. Agzarian
Arch Intern Med. 2002;162(6):719-720.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Aging and the Laparoscopic Revolution: Has the Landscape Changed?
Morgenstern and Swanstrom
SURG INNOV 2009;16:5-7.
 

A Brief History of Geriatrics
Morley
Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 2004;59:1132-1152.
FULL TEXT  

A Cultural and Economic History of Old Age in America
Fleming et al.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2003;78:914-921.
ABSTRACT  

Osler, Old Age, and Dock
Cheng
Arch Intern Med 2002;162:719-719.
FULL TEXT  

No Cutoff Date for Active Pursuits
Agzarian and Agzarian
Arch Intern Med 2002;162:719-720.
FULL TEXT