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Setting The Record Straight For Two Heroes In Hypertension: John J. Hay And Paul Dudley White, Merrill Elias, Amanda L. Goodell

Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Papers

Papers dealing with the history of the study of hypertension provide an invaluable window to our past. They identify our misconceptions, mistakes, and advances and describe the evolution of new knowledge. New knowledge develops in the context of contemporary scientific knowledge and zeitgeist. Zeitgeist is the German word for the defining mood or spirit of a particular era as expressed in the ideas and beliefs of the time.

The limitations of a scientist's knowledge and perspective at any given point in time must be considered in historical context. Therefore, we must tread carefully when criticizing a scientist's thinking and ideas …