Milestones on the long road to knowledge

Abstract

Seeking a way to mark the launch of the new BMJ , we hit on the idea of looking back at the most important medical milestones since the forerunner of the BMJ was first published in 1840. We asked readers to nominate milestones, which you did in good numbers. A panel of editors and advisers narrowed the field down from more than 70 to 15. We invited champions to write on each one; their contributions make up the commemorative supplement we are publishing on 20 January. And we are now inviting readers to vote for which you think is the most important of these medical milestones (see bmj.com). The result will be announced on 18 January. Medicine is about stories—the patient's account, the doctor's interpretation, the detective work of diagnosis, the research journey—and these 15 accounts are all good stories. They combine all the elements of good fiction: serendipity in the discovery of penicillin (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39021.640255.94) and x rays (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39052.527396.94); sheer determination in the development of tissue culture (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39034.719942.94); raw personal ambition—the emergence of ether as an …

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