Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    takes. But whether right or wrong, the critics usually proceed upon one or more of several erroneous assump¬ tions. The first pertains to the right of an editor to expunge a sentence or paragraph with which he disagrees in an otherwise acceptable article. That he has no such right is shown by the fact that the critics would be the first to deny it in the case of their own contributed letters or articles. The second faulty assumption is that an article contributed—and the same usually applies to reports, news- items and quotations—receives a half endorsement, if not a whole one, by the editor from the mere fact of insertion in his journal. It seems stupid to republish in every num¬ ber the old stereotyped notice, “This Journal does not hold itself responsible for the views or statements made in its columns except those in the editorial department,” and yet the letters of occasional correspondents make one sometimes feel as if this were advisable. One may even have recalled to mind the stanza of a great poet : “ There was an old man of Thermopylae, Who never did anything properly; But they said, If you choose to boil eggs in your shoes, You shall never remain in Thermopylae.” Again, it may be suspected that local feeling and even a personal animus, indirectly at least, may have rarely stimulated a passionate protest. If such is ever the case the fact that editors are not omniscient may perhaps be a sufficient reason for partial pardoning on the part of others, . ■# although not by any means authorizing an overkind leniency toward himself on the part of the editor. “ Not guilty, but don’t do it again,” may perhaps be the verdict in both cases. The facts suggest a thought as to the value and praise¬ worthiness of toleration. The crudest way to put it would be to say, too ungraciously it is true, that for the subscrip¬ tion price no reader acquires the right to grumble when displeased, nor in accepting it does a journal guarantee to
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