TY - JOUR T1 - THe critical periods in the life of a physician AU - PORTER WT Y1 - 1909/04/24 N1 - 10.1001/jama.1909.25420430001001 JO - Journal of the American Medical Association SP - 1305 EP - 1307 VL - LII IS - 17 N2 - The life of a man is marked by certain critical periods. Birth, marriage and death are commonly so reckoned. Their importance, as conventionally defined, is chiefly historical. In this conventional form they may be regarded as erroneous concepts developed during the lamentable and prolonged darkness which preceded the advent of the biologist. We now know that birth and death are inseparable companions. They begin together long before that change of habitat which we ordinarily call birth, and they go on together even after death has plainly the upper hand. What have we, as rational beings, to do with these processes? Nothing. We are born blank. Of death we know even less than of birth. Ages before the Pharaohs, death came mysterious, unsolved, and still so comes. We have no personal data of birth because we are born without the powers of observation and reason. And we have no data regarding SN - 0002-9955 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jama.1909.25420430001001 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.25420430001001 ER -