Perilous Encounters
Commentaries on the evolution, art and science of medicine from ancient to modern times
by
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A cherished day to remember
The great jazz musician, Louis Armstrong, had always claimed that he was born on the Fourth of July, 1900. Historians, more interested in tangible records than romantic recollections, have finally located his baptismal records showing that he had been born on Aug. 4, 1901. Uncaring realism has replaced congenial sentimentality.
A great performer of Irish descent, George M. Cohan, was truly born on the Fourth of July in Providence; and when he wrote his famous signature song, he exploited this with the key phrase, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, born on the Fourth of July!” Others in the entertainment world born on July 4th include Gina Lollabrigida, Virginia Graham, Geraldo Rivera, Eva Marie Saint, Gloria Stuart and Mitch Miller. If birthdays are distributed somewhat randomly, then about one out of each 365 persons should be celebrating his/her birthday on the same day that this nation commemorates its origins. And it should not come as a surprise, therefore, when a handful of people are said to be born on July 4th.
The Declaration of Independence had been completed, duly signed and openly proclaimed on the 4th of July. This day assumed unique significance, particularly for the American patriots who had supported and signed it on behalf of their respective states. Thomas Jefferson, the third president and author of this Declaration, considered it to be the most important event in his lifetime. He died on July 4, 1826 – exactly 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration. And in New England, his long-time rival and late-in-life friend John Adams, the second president, also died on July 4, 1826. The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, similarly died on the 4th of July in 1831. The concurrence of these deaths on the 4th of July may be an astonishing coincidence. More likely, though, it represents a compelling example of a phenomenon that has been noted by demographers: Namely, the ability of a dying person to delay the moment, even day, of death so that it might coincide with a date of great personal significance, a day such as one’s birthday.
For those who are the beneficiaries of that precious independence affirmed by the Declaration, whether they be presidents or anonymous American citizens, July 4 must therefore hold a singular importance; important enough to make them think, wishfully perhaps, that they had in fact been born on that special date; or, as a more dramatic homage to July 4, by keeping themselves alive when mortally ill until that date had arrived.
Stark realities have often tempered the degree to which Jews have allowed themselves to be sentimental. But there are certain dates, both secular and holy, which rarely go unremembered by Jews. The tenets of the High Holy Days may or may not be strictly observed but these special days of awe are rarely totally forgotten.
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About the Book
Stanley M. Aronson, M.D., the founding dean of Brown University’s medical school, has been writing newspaper columns for more than a decade for two Rhode Island publications. His Medical Arts’ commentaries, compiled in this volume, have graced the pages of The Rhode Island Jewish Voice & Herald with wisdom, humor and a compelling humanity.
The columns take readers on a journey into the history, heroes, marvels and maladies of ancient and current medical practices, captured in engaging tales.
This collection includes stories of Jewish Nobel Prize winners, Biblical and medical giants as well as notables from the Rhode Island and New York Jewish medical communities.
Thus, you will read, through a medical, Jewish and universal perspective, of David and Goliath, the Biblical Miriam, the historic Lewis and Clark, Jonas Salk, Alexander Fleming, Metchnikoff, and Maimonides to name but a few, in these pages.
Dr. Aronson also reflects on his own humble origins through recollections of growing up in a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn. He then broadens the experience to an examination of exile, from the Mosaic era to the present.
The commentaries are leavened with the wit and wonder of what were often “perilous” medical encounters, hence the title of this collection. It includes chapters on clinical cases in the Scriptures, the evolution of Judaic medicine, Jewish physicians, the historic development of hospitals, Diaspora and disease, and medical curiosities and customs.
The author’s penchant for the odd detail (“And He smote them with what?) as well as his innate curiosity (“Jonas Salk, sleuth”) and questing spirit (“Lewis and Clark: The Lost Tribes of Israel”) illuminate this work.
About the Author
Stanley M. Aronson, M.D., the founding dean of Brown University’s medical school, came from a humble background. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to immigrant parents, he attended a vocational high school with the hope of becoming a carpenter.
During the Great Depression, however, he attended the City College of New York, and this experience changed the course of his life. Awakened to the world of science, the arts, and intellectual inquiry, he set out on a new path, that of research and scientific pursuits. He majored in mathematics and marine biology, but after the entry of the United States into World War ll, he volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving in the infantry. After the war, he changed his professional compass towards medicine, and attended medical school at New York University, under the G.I. bill.
His graduate training was in the neurosciences, as resident physician and fellow at a series of New York hospitals including Bellevue, Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Mt. Sinai. In 1952, he joined the medical faculty at Columbia University. Two years later, he began a 17-year career at the State University of N.Y., Downstate Medical Center, where he conducted clinical and laboratory research in degenerative brain diseases and was the author of over 400 scientific articles and six text books.
In 1970, Dr. Aronson was recruited by Brown University to found its medical school and served as its dean until 1981. He then earned a graduate degree in public health at Harvard University, continued to teach at Brown, and formed the Rhode Island’s Hospice Care program. He has also worked overseas for the Rockefeller Foundation.
From Brooklyn to Brown University and beyond, Dr. Aronson represents the fulfillment of the American dream, borne from the aspirations of Jewish immigrant parents.