The Green Monster: Stokes's 1944 Modern Clinical Syphilology.
BACKGROUND
There is much information on the life and accomplishments of John Hinchman Stokes (1885-1961), the dermatologist and syphilologist. There is little detailed information on his 1944 classic text on syphilis, Modern Clinical Syphilology.


OBJECTIVE
To review and critique this book.


METHODS
A careful review of the book, his life, and the accomplishments that were undertaken in relation to the age in which he lived.


RESULTS
The book is indeed a goldmine of information of all aspects of syphilis from pre-World War I (1905) until the late (1944) World War II era.


CONCLUSIONS
The factors that make it a classic are as follows: (1) the disease had a specific cause; (2) Stokes's 25-year obsession with the disease; (3) there was no effective simple cure for most of the time he was studying it; (4) Stokes was an obsessive, intelligent, well-trained physician; (5) he lived in a well-developed, reasonably stable country; and (6) he was able to see how the disease could be adequately treated with penicillin and compare these events with those in the prepenicillin era.
Jackson
Robert
R
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON. robertj@istar.ca
D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D013587:Syphilis / Q000266:history*