The laws of medicine field notes from an uncertain science In the medieval story, a prisoner is sent to jail with just one book but discovers a cosmos of a thousand books in that single volume. In my recollection, I also read only one book (in 2000) - a slim paperback collection of essays titled The Youngest Science - but I read it as if it were a thousand books. It became one of the most profound influences on my life in medicine. The Youngest Science was subtitled Notes of a Medicine-Watcher and was about a medical residency in another age.
Written by the physician, scientist, author and occasional poet Lewis Thomas, it describes his tenure as a medical resident and intern in the 1930s. In 1937 having graduated from Harvard Medical School, Thomas began his internship at Boston City Hospital. It was a grueling initiation. "Rewarding might be the wrong word for it, for the salary was no…
