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JAMA Classics: Celebrating 125 Years of Publication
Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH;
Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD, MBA
JAMA. 2008;300(3):331.
This issue marks the 125th anniversary or quasquicentennial (we dare you to say that 3 times without getting tongue-tied) of JAMA, which began publication in 1883. In that year, Chester A. Arthur was the US president and the first telephone line connected New York and Chicago. In the 1883 world of biology and medicine, Robert Koch discovered the cholera bacillus and Georgios N. Papanikolaou, pioneer in cervical cytology, was born.
The first issue of JAMA, published on July 14, 1883 (Figure), included a wide range of articles that apparently were selected to be of interest to a general medical readership. These reports covered a wide range of topics, including tobacco smoking in children, blunt chest trauma, and neurological disorders. Other articles in that issue described therapeutic interventions, such as treatment of otorrhea and diabetes and surgical techniques. All of this information was available for 10 cents per issue ($5 for an annual subscription), with costs probably at least partially defrayed with advertisements (mostly for schools and books, but also for medicinal products) that also appeared in that issue. Some things change little over time.
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Figure. Premier Issue of JAMA, July 14, 1883
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Over the past 125 years, JAMA has published many important groundbreaking and practice-changing articles, some of which we now refer to as JAMA Classics. To celebrate our quasquicentennial, over the next year we will republish 24 of those classic articles online accompanied in print by a JAMA Classics Commentary that provides a brief summary of the original article and an update of the topic covered in the classic article. Whenever possible the Commentary will be written by individuals from the same institution as the authors of the classic article.
To start this series, with this issue of JAMA we are publishing online the full text of the classic article "The Surgical Treatment of Malformations of the Heart in Which There Is Pulmonary Stenosis or Pulmonary Atresia" authored by Alfred Blalock, MD, and Helen B. Taussig, MD.1 The accompanying Commentary in this issue of JAMA is authored by Anne Murphy, MD, and Duke Cameron, MD2; all 4 authors are from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Both women were/are pediatric cardiologists and both men were/are pediatric surgeons. One difference is that, unlike the original article, the Commentary has the woman as first author.
We hope you will enjoy the JAMA Classics series as much as we have in choosing the articles and collaborating with the authors of the Commentaries.
Read, learn, and enjoy.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Additional Contributions: We thank Sandra R. Schefris, MLS, director of the James S. Todd Memorial Library, American Medical Association, for research and retrieval of articles for the series.
Editorials represent the opinions of the authors and JAMA and not those of the American Medical Association.
Author Affiliations: Dr DeAngelis (cathy.deangelis{at}jama-archives.org) is Editor-in-Chief and Dr Fontanarosa is Executive Deputy Editor, JAMA.
REFERENCES
1. Blalock A, Taussig HB. The surgical treatment of malformations of the heart in which there is pulmonary stenosis or pulmonary atresia. JAMA. 1945;128(3):189-202.
ISI
2. Murphy AM, Cameron DE. The Blalock-Taussig-Thomas collaboration: a model for medical progress. JAMA. 2008;300(3):328-330.
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The Blalock-Taussig-Thomas Collaboration: A Model for Medical Progress
Anne M. Murphy and Duke E. Cameron
JAMA. 2008;300(3):328-330.
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