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February 1979, Vol 139, No. 2 >
ARTICLE | February 1979

An Iconoclastic View of Conventional Wisdoms in Hematology

Ernest Beutler, MD
Arch Intern Med. 1979;139(2):221-223. doi:10.1001/archinte.1979.03630390073026.
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Conventional wisdom is that body of knowledge that most people accept as truth. Each specialty of medicine has its own treasury of conventional wisdom. It is acquired early in one's training, never questioned, often repeated to the cadence of many heads nodding in agreement, and its acquisition gives all of us a feeling of security that we have learned our specialty well. Because there is such agreement concerning its validity, the source of conventional wisdom is often unknown and, in point of fact, great wisdoms often rest on slender reeds. Although much of conventional wisdom is accurate, even a casual retrospective view of medical practice should be enough to make us wary of its acceptance. Who, 100 years ago, would have been willing to assert that purging and bleeding were not effective in the treatment of anemia, that tight corsets played no role in the cause of chlorosis, or that

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