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Visual Medicine | |||
May 26, 1967 John K. Mackenzie Dear Mr. Mackenzie: Thank you for sending us your manuscript on "McLuhanology and Media Thermodynamics." I'm afraid I must return it, with regrets. It is clever, all right, and up to the minute. But physicians usually count on their material having considerable proof to support scientific assertions. Professor McLuhan, as the world knows, scorns proof as much as he does common sense. And, if we were to publish a paper that called a patient "an incomplete mosaic," I'm afraid we would forfeit any hopes of ever being taken seriously, again. I don't want to sound unpleasant, Mr. Mackenzie, but I harbor a suspicion that, in spite of the audience to who you originally delivered your paper, you actually don't have much experience with the medical community. If you have in mind to do another paper, on the fallacies of Professor McLuhan's assertions, or on their irrelevance to the teaching and practice of medicine, then we would be happy to consider it for publication. For instance, color television, the Professor's hottest possible medium, is positively frigid when used for instructing first-year medical students in Anatomy. Information remains the message.* With best regards, Robert Herron Office of the editor, 3900 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC 20007 | |||
* Two of the legendary pioneers in developing TV for medical education were: Andrew Ramsay, M.D., professor of anatomy at the Jefferson Medical College, and Joseph Markee, M.D., professor of anatomy at the Duke University School of Medicine. Both served on the board of the Council On Medical Television; now HeSCA (The Health-Sciences Communication Association) | |||