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The information in the articles collected in this volume may be seen as a memorial to the 19c. philanthropist Johns Hopkins (d. 1873, Baltimore, MD) and the medical work resulting, down to the present day, from his foresight and posthumous munificence, and to the lifetime work of the physician Arnold S. Relman (d. 2014, Cambridge, MA), a professor of social medicine and editor of The Journal of Clinical Investigation (1962-1967) and of The New England Journal of Medicine (1977-1991), who wrote extensively on medical publishing and reform of the U.S. health care system.
Given that "One common feature of all definitions of alternative medicine is its designation as other than conventional medicine" (as the lead article mentions), this has influenced both the presentation of the information in the lead article and, in consequence, the selection of the other articles with their further information, much of which describes or reports about the development of conventional medicine, and what distinguishes that from "alternative".
This is encapsulated in the opening words of the lead article: "Alternative medicine is any practice that is put forward as having the healing effects of medicine but is not based on evidence gathered using the scientific method". The wording expresses a principal distinguishing feature between "alternative" medicine and 20c. mainstream medicine, which is more fully explained in the Background "Definitions and terminology" and "History" sections of the article. Practises such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and acupuncture are based on theories or principles which are intentionally and professedly other than that of mainstream "scientific medicine".
The unity and mutual relevance of the articles made here into a single volume is shown by the headings under which they are grouped. All but the lead article are linked from it, with few if any exceptions.
Most of the images in the lead article of the version as at 23:55, 16 July 2014 recur in another of the articles, but, in the lead article, the captions and links were adapted to that context.
Qexigator (talk) 21:50, 12 July 2014 (UTC)
The opportunity for creating a book arranged in that way resulted from the introduction of images in a series of revisions to the lead article in July 2014, from to, in connection with a discussion of a proposal on the article's Talk page. -- Qexigator (talk) 06:53, 13 July 2014 (UTC)
The captions for the images mentioned above included:
Institutions
The article "History of medicine" includes an image of a 12c. Byzantine manuscript of the Hippocratic oath, from Surgery: An Illustrated History, p. 27, by Ira M. Rutkow, M.D. (1993), captioned "The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of early medical works from ancient Greece that is strongly associated with the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates and his teachings.
The same article includes a translation of the oath into English.
Extracts from the lead article's Talk page, 31 July-13 August 3014, in respect of some of the editing which resulted in that article's then newly revised version:
The present version, as newly revised, gives even greater prominence than before to anxiety about fraudulent health products in the USA, the homeland of the expression "snake oil" in this connection, said to stem from the days of the construction of the "Pacific Railroad" in the 1860s. In the context of the rest of the article as a whole, that may be considered acceptable. But the topic is not "Fraudulent health products in the USA"; it is "Alternative medicine", an expression that came into use about a century later, and it is misleading to construct the article as if there is some definite entity world-wide of which it could be said "alternative medicine actually is ". In the earlier version, this was scrupulously explained after the lead in "Background" section: Treatments considered alternative in one location may be considered conventional in another... Some definitions seek to specify alternative medicine in terms of its social and political marginality to mainstream healthcare. How the term "alternative medicine" came into use was explained in the next section "History", followed by "The NCCAM classification system", and "snake oil" was mentioned, with citations. We should consider putting the longstanding structure for the first two sections back in place. Qexigator (talk) 15:15, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
See "Collaborative editing" and "Recent edits, future images" below, and in particular, see in the collapsed section below, "The attempt to attribute the mayhem quote as if Qexigator's is particularly interesting to anyone evaluating the problem. It shows an inability (on FloraWilde's part) to understand what was being said, or a deliberate attempt to mislead". For the record, the supposed "disruptive" edits have not been demonstrated to be so, the repeated use of that term by FloraWilde does not substantiate the supposition, and it is denied and rebutted by.... Qexigator (talk) 10:52, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
Most regular editors will be aware that when an article is being built up or revised by a number of editors over a period of time, changes in the revisions will be made and unmade or modified as the revision evolves, with moves until a structure is settled, and later on it may be found that tweaks and copyedits are necessary. To characterise that as disruptive shows a complete failure to understand the process. Such changes are discussed and accepted or not as the process continues, as should be happening now with questions about the presentation of the images, as well as changes to text. Our concern should be to improve the article as best we may, acknowledging when a change of direction happens, such as the introduction of images. Qexigator (talk) 20:40, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
Changes have recently been made to the lead, and the position of the first sections "Background" and "History – 19th century onwards" which depart from the long-standing version as at 22:41, 31 July 2014.
The lead, structure and text had been stablised, with some copyedits and tweaks thereafter, until 26 July , as a result of an earlier revision process (involving a number of editors) pretty much at the point when MrBill3's overhaul of the refs was getting under way in mid-September 2013, and goes as far as back as March 2013, if not before.
The ongoing process of editing to improve the article was affected by a misguided attempt to claim that certain edits were "disruptive", which demonstrably was in error.
But the recent series of edits, made by one newly intervening editor, has turned the previously stable article, written and set out in an encyclopedic style and character, into something which tends to look more in the style and character of a soapboxish rant aimed, perhaps, at satisfying a section of the American readership. Those edits were preceded by the flurry about banning "disruptive" editing introduced here, considered here and here, and continued here, here, here,, here etc., and including a falsehood (maybe inadvertent) about the lead here
That has been a needless and unwarranted distraction from the ongoing process of edits aimed at improving the article. It was attended by a series of moves of content on this page, alteration of headings, such as here, or here, insertions of Headings, such as , and collapses, such as (and sometimes uncollapsing), which has interefered with the accurate presentation of the way the discussion has developed. Are we to suppose that was due simply to brash ignorance, or perhaps a tactical move with combative intent?
This can be seen as particularly significant, noting that it was done in connection with an unfounded attack on the present contributor, none of whose edits or contributions can properly be described as disruptive, whether or not some have later been removed in the normal process of development, coupled with an attack on NCAAM for its political position under the title "Is NCCAM WP:RS on anthropological or sociology statements?", commenting: Without apparent anthropological or sociological expertise, NCCAM, a political body, invented a nonsense "classification" scheme for the anthropological and sociological phenomenon called alternative medicine, of which it is a part. It used this in getting funding for testing of things like manipulation of supernatural "energy fields" to "heal". The title has been changed to "Is NCCAM WP:RS on physics, anthropology, sociology, and theology?" and the content revised.
None of the other recent edits which were said to be disruptive were so in fact, nor were any of those cited from the past, as can be acknowledged by any one who was involved in the editing at that time, and can be seen by anyone prepared to look at the edits in sequence in the context of the ongoing edits and Talk page discussions. Reasoned and reasonable discussion on the Talk page in respect of any of such edit that was thought not to be an improvement would be the way to make progress, without yelling "disruptive".
In particular, the use of images in principle, and where images would be placed for the better information of inquiring readers, involve questions about which some discussion has started, but has not yet been sufficiently explored for anyone to claim a consensus has been reached in support of what any one person editing here may favour. When some calm and reason has been restored, it may be possible to resume the ongoing process of editing the article for its improvement in the normal way. Qexigator (talk) 20:13, 10 August 2014 (UTC)
Some edits of the lead article from March 2013 to July 2014, exemplifying tweaks and copyedits made to the text of the earlier version in that period (some have remained, some moved, some gone in the ordinary course of developing the article), and some images inserted in July 2014, later removed:
2013 MARCH
2013 APRIL
2013 MAY
2013 JUNE, JULY, AUG nil
2013 SEPT
2013 OCT
2013 NOV, DEC nil
2014 JAN
2014 FEB
2014 MARCH, APRIL, MAY, JUNE nil
2014 JULY
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