The seven sins of physicians

The seven sins of physicians: "Asher's papers have a timeless quality - and, like some of our medical classics, deserve rereading from time to time. His lecture 'The Seven Sins of Medicine' is as instructive as it is entertaining. First published in The Lancet, on 27 August 1949 and re-published in a collection of his essays (10), his comments are directed to seven sins although he asserts that there are 'an unlimited number.' His lecture, he said, was given in the hope that 'those students who wish to avoid them (the sins) may do so, and those who wish to indulge in them may enlarge their repertoire or refine their technique.' The seven sins of medicine are identified as obscurity, cruelty, bad manners, over-specialization, love of the rare, common stupidity and sloth. The lecture, as topical today as it was some 35 years ago, serves as a gentle and humorous reminder of the pitfalls of medical practice."