I’ve been puzzling for years over how to define health without making much progress, but I thought I might take a step forward by listening to a discussion on the […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: Doctors and the “three body problem”
Paul Valéry, the French poet and polymath, believed that we all have three bodies and suffer because we cannot bring them together. The best doctors, I suggest, pay attention to […]
Richard Smith: Race relations in Florida
Those of us outside the US think of holidays, sun, Disney, and orange juice when we think of Florida. We don’t even think of it as part of the slavery, […]
Richard Smith: Case reports in 16th century Europe and China
There is a huge theoretical body of knowledge about the history of the novel, but almost nothing on the history of the medical case report. Gianna Pomata from Johns Hopkins […]
Richard Smith: Is the New England Journal of Medicine anti-science?
About once a year a furious researcher writes to me complaining that the New England Journal of Medicine won’t publish a letter that strongly criticises, even demolishes, an article the […]
Richard Smith: Menstrual regulation and the sacra rosa—escaping religious rigidity
Countries that are strongly Muslim or Roman Catholic find abortion unacceptable, but Bangladesh, a Muslim country, has found a clever way of helping women who might be pregnant and don’t […]
Richard Smith: The BMA and homosexuality
I was once responsible for Family Doctor Publications, which were a series of booklets owned by the BMA, had titles like You and Your Bowels, and sold in huge numbers […]
Richard Smith: Health and social care: lots of activity, little value
My mother is a wonderful woman but has no short term memory and drinks too much alcohol. When she’s sober her language is complex and her sense of humour magnificent. […]
Richard Smith: How often do men think about sex?
Everybody knows that men think about sex every seven seconds. What people haven’t perhaps considered is that means more than 8000 times a day or 56 000 times a week. […]
Richard Smith: “Longevity is one of the greatest curses introduced by the scientists”
“Longevity is one of the greatest curses introduced by the scientists,” wrote Evelyn Waugh in a letter to Harold Action in 1961, a few days after his 58th birthday. I […]