On the Shoulders of Giants: A 1500-Year-Old Aphorism

Abstract

We appreciate your recent editorial1Alpert J.S. Standing on the shoulders of giants.Am J Med. 2014; 127: 359-360Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar and would like to comment on how its content reverberates over the well-known aphorism “On the shoulders of giants,” commonly abridged as OTSOG, used as an exergue. As medical doctors practicing different disciplines, pathology, anesthesiology, and infectious diseases, we are well aware that in medicine some things are continuously changing at a precipitous pace while others have not changed since the day we graduated. It is often not easy for physicians to find the origin of a patient’s problem or the reason for a specific result in a study. In both cases, as we investigate more thoroughly, we find, often serendipitously, different and unexpected findings. An example of this phenomenon is the true origin of the OTSOG aphorism, frequently attributed, as in the editorial,1Alpert J.S. Standing on the shoulders of giants.Am J Med. 2014; 127: 359-360Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar to Isaac Newton. However, the definitive work by Merton2Merton R.K. On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL1993Google Scholar leaves no doubt. The famous aphorism was used by others before Newton, although Burton was wrong when attributing it in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) to Didacus Stella, erroneously traced back by Bartlett’s Quotations to Lucan’s Civil War.3Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. 16th ed. Boston: Little Brown Co; 1980:118.Google Scholar Approximately 50 years ago, Merton concluded that the OTSOG aphorism was first used in the sixth century by Priscian, a Latin grammarian born and raised in Caesarea (modern Cherchell, Algeria), who wrote in the Institutiones Grammaticae that the younger the grammar’s authors were, the more perceptive they would be. Priscian’s grammar remained the standard textbook to study Latin during the Middle Ages and was extensively studied and cited by many authors in several countries. In 1159, John of Salisbury attributed the giants’ aphorism in Metalogicon to Bernard of Chartres, writing “according to Bernard, men are like dwarfs who standing on the shoulders of giants can grow in art and culture.”4Merton R.K. On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL1993: 40Google Scholar The use of the aphorism flourished after it was used by Isaac Newton in a letter sent to his rival Robert Hooke in 1676. It was used by Samuel Coleridge in 1828, in his bulletin The Friend (1828), and in 1890, in the lecture by Friedrich Kekulé’s at Benzolfest.5Strunz F. Preconscious mental activity and scientific problem-solving: A critique of the Kekulé dream controversy.Dreaming. 1993; 3: 281-294Crossref Google Scholar OTSOG has been widely used by writers (eg, Eco), physicists (eg, Hawking), and politicians (eg, Disraeli, Bukharin, Jefferson, Reagan, and Bush).6Dorizzi R.M. Sette P. Standing on the shoulders of the giants e Isaac Newton? Bernard of Chartres? Priscian!.Pharos Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Med Soc. 2012; 75: 61Google Scholar Too often, physicians, especially the youngest, forget the history of medical discoveries and the winding pathway of the progress of science. However, even when looking back to the past, we should maintain our passion for the scientific tools: collecting data and information, analyzing them, and applying them to the clinical practice. We hope that this footnote of the history of science might contribute to the progress and the fine-tuning of our profession. Standing on the Shoulders of GiantsThe American Journal of MedicineVol. 127Issue 5Preview“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” (Sir Isaac Newton, 1676) Full-Text PDF