‘What are the Back Pages for?’ Well, for me at least, they are the reason I read the BJGP (and thereby chance upon some of the other useful stuff).
November's offerings were particularly good. They remind me in their different ways that all our history and culture is more about ideas than evidence, and that goes for medicine as much as anything. This is perhaps something of what people mean when they say that medicine is more of an art than a science (although, like David Jewell, the point to me is that it is actually a craft).
But the art/science dichotomy is as true and false at the same time as all our other dichotomies. Ever since we came to think and communicate by way of symbols, ideas have been humanity's lifeblood. Long may they flourish.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2006.
