Journal Mobile

Author(s): 
EH Jellinek
Journal Issue: 
Volume 38: Issue 4: 2008

Format

Abstract

 

The past 100 years have seen a transition from a total ban in Britain on all  advertising  by  doctors  to  the  laity  to  almost  total  freedom  of  medical information, with probable benefit to public health but also a risk of loss of privacy. The  Family  Encyclopaedia  of  Medicine,  written  by  Dr  Hugh  Howard  Riddle  and published  by  Lord  Northcliffe’s Daily  Mail  in  1914,  started  a  flood  of  medical journalism in the press and the newer media. The lavishly advertised misattribution of  its  authorship  to  ‘thirty  eminent  specialists’,  including  Clifford  Allbutt  and William Osler, caused a major rumpus in the London Royal College of Physicians, but the fortnightly publication continued and became a four-volume book, popular
with a public avid for more and more medical information.

PDF