EDITORIAL
The American Journal of Digestive Diseases 1934-1977
The history of a subspecialty medical journal is not the stuff to quicken the pulse nor will it yield resonant conclusions or universal truths. There are some compensations to reading a history of this journal: it is recent enough to involve the egos of many persons now living; it reflects the recent growth of our subspecialty; and lastly, there are those great antidotes to boredom, conflict, and controversy. In March 1934, The American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition was started by Beaumont S. Cornell, MD, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The publisher was the Sandfield Publishing Co., and the E d i t o r - i n - C h i e f was F r a n k Smithies, MD. Dr. Smithies had been president of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1929. This was alleged to be the first journal in North America which was devoted exclusively to digestive diseases. The Editorial Council numbered ninety-three, including internists, surgeons, radiologists, and physiologists. The list includes eminent scientists, many of whose names are familiar 55 years later. Because the Councilreads like a Who's Who in gastroenterology, it is hard to choose names to demonstrate the high quality of the participants. The following will suffice: Walter Alvarez, Arthur Bloomfield, Henry Bockus, Burrill Crohn, Julius Friedenwald, Sara Jordan, B.B. Vincent Lyon, Martin Rehfuss, Leon Schiff, Franklin White, Lester Dragstedt, John Finney, Frank Lahey, Alton Ochsner, Chevalier Jackson, Boris Babkin, F r e d e r i c k Banting, " A j a x " Carlson, Andrew Ivy. It is not clear what the role was for this impressive collection of physicians and scientists, nor is it known how long they served. I find the list repeated with several additions in the April 1934 issue, but the Editorial Board or Council is never again listed in the bound copies until the new series in 1956. The first issue included clinical and research arti-
cles, editorials, book reviews, and an abstract section. The March, April, and May issues were " o f such high caliber" in the opinion of officers of the American Gastroenterological Association that in August of 1934 the journal became the "Official Journal" of that Association. In an editorial (1) announcing this affiliation, Dr. B.B. Vincent Lyon, president of the AGA, was high in his praise of the journal and said, we predict that this journal will have a brilliant future so long as it continues to maintain its high standard of editorial supervision of accepted manuscripts and other subject matter and thus will serve to fill a much needed void [sic!]. If this is accomplished, it will certainly enhance the value of American medical literature. Whenever it ceases to do so, the American Gastro-Enterological Association will withdraw its support and seek elsewhere9 9
.
.
While Dr. Lyon praised and then threatened, one hopes he was not planning to seek another "much needed void." The year 1937 was an eventful year for the journal. Frank Smithies, Editor-in-Chief, died on February 9 of a cerebral hemorrhage and the post of Editor-in-Chief was abolished. Editorial "responsibility was placed upon a group of men comprising an Editorial Board" (2). The group consisted of Walter Alvarez, Rochester, Minnesota, Burrill B. Crohn, New York, New York, Henry L. Bockus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Sara M. Jordan, B o s t o n , M a s s a c h u s e t t s . The position of Supervising Editor was retained by Dr. Cornell, and all manuscripts were to be sent to him. He states in an Editorial that "they [manuscripts] will be sent at once for review, suggestion, criticism, and acceptance or rejection to appropriate members of the Board or Council" (ibid). In August of 1937, a supplement to the journal was sent out consisting of a prominent title page and a one-and-a-half-page article by Cornell himself in
Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979) 0163-2116/79/0100-0001503.00/1 9 1979 Digestive Disease Systems, Inc.
FARRAR which he announced a new treatment for cancer (3). The paper includes one brief case report and a series of hypotheses suggesting that cancer is a deficiency state. When one reads the article, notes its lack of substance, and reads the title page of the journal which prominently displays the statement, "The Official Publication of the American GastroEnterological Association," it is easy to understand why members of the AGA reacted negatively. They did. In response to the expressions of displeasure by the AGA, Dr. Cornell declared in a letter that the journal would cease to be the organ of the AGA. This declaration appears to have been ignored by him and everyone else. No mention of it appears in the pages of the journal. However, in 1938 Dr. Cornell resigned from the AGA in protest against the criticism of the special supplement. From my reading of the early journals and some of the correspondence of Dr. Cornell, I conclude that he was a conscientious physician who was quite sincere in his attempts to advance medical knowledge. Tragically, he committed one of the classic sins in science. He lost his objectivity in his enthusiasm for his new " c u r e , " and, in all probability, used his position as Supervising Editor to publish a report with great fanfare without ever consulting the Editorial Board or Editorial Council. The response was predictable. A contract was negotiated (renegotiated?) in 1938 between the AGA and Dr. Cornell, who was apparently the owner of the Sandfield Publishing Company. This contract provided the mechanism for the AGA to select the Editor-in-Chief. However, the contract stated that in case of disagreement as to the choice of an Editor, "the Sandfield Publishing Company shall have the deciding voice." Such a clause did not augur well for the journal's immediate future ! In August 1938, Walter Alvarez became Editorin-Chief, and the relationship between the AGA and the journal appeared stable. However, by the spring of 1941, the AGA became dissatisfied with the journal's advertising policy and with the quality of some of the articles published (4). Dr. Andrew C. Ivy was appointed by the AGA as a "Committee of One to take up with Dr. Cornell the objections to the journal." The AGA offered to buy the journal, but negotiations were fruitless. One June 15, 1942 a notice terminating the contract was sent to Cornell by the AGA. Dr. James D. Boyle, Archivist for the AGA has sent me a copy of a letter from Cornell to Ivy, dated August 10, 1942, in which Cornell offers to
2
sell the journal for "forty thousand dollars." Why this was written after the AGA had decided to start its own journal is not clear, but I suspect Ivy was making one final attempt to buy the journal. In the December 1942 issue of the journal, Dr. Cornell wrote a friendly, rather gracious editorial in which he announced the separation of the AGA and the AJDD. Toward the end of the editorial, he noted with regret the "secession" (!) of the AGA (5). From 1942 to 1955, Dr. Cornell edited the journal, but it is impossible to tell from reading the bound volumes what editorial assistance he received. By 1955, the number of pages printed per year had decreased to 354 from 970 in 1936, and the circulation had dropped to 1100. Although occasional good articles appeared and well-known authors are represented during the period from 1945 to 1955, the overall quality of the articles is quite low. At the end of 1955, the journal was bought by Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., a subsidiary of Harper & Row, for a modest sum. The Hoeber Company was started by Mr. Hoeber's father early in the century to publish and distribute medical books of high quality. In 1935, the senior Mr. Hoeber sold his business to Harper & Row. From a recent conversation with Mr. Paul Hoeber, I conclude that Dr. Cornell was very sentimental about the journal, and his main interest in selling was to allow the journal to continue to exist. Beaumont Cornell became Editor Emeritus and died in 1958. In January 1956, the new series started under the joint editorship of Henry D. Janowitz, MD, and Maxwell H. Poppel, MD, and an Editorial Board of eleven members. The following year, E. Clinton Texter, MD, replaced Dr. Poppel and for the next nine years, Janowitz and Texter guided the journal with the assistance of an Editorial Board whose members served for four-year terms. In 1964, Nicholas Hightower became Associate Editor. The years between 1956 and 1966 were important ones for both the journal and the subspecialty. There was a steady increase in training and research in gastroenterology and a commensurate increase in the number and quality of articles submitted to the journal. The Editors were aggressive and hardworking, and the Board members were often the rising leaders in the field. In 1966, Dr. Janowitz stepped down after ten years as coeditor, and for two years Dr. Texter was editor. In 1968, Harper & Row chose me as the new Editor. From 1968 to 1973, the Associate Editor, NichDigestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979)
JOURNAL HISTORY olas Hightower, and the Editorial Board and I viewed our principal tasks to be two: (1) improving the quality of the papers published and (2) making the journal useful and readable. Each original paper was critically reviewed by two referees besides the Editor. The Board members and outside reviewers worked very hard to improve important papers which required revision. To make the journal more useful and readable, we added new features such as Multidisciplinary Conferences, Progress Reports and C o m p a r a t i v e G a s t r o e n t e r o l o g y , and Controversies in Gastroenterology. The journal continued the improvement started by Henry Janowitz and Clinton Texter. In 1973, I told the owner, Harper & Row, that I was ready to step down as Editor when they could find a replacement. In response to my request to be replaced, a representative of the company indicated that they were seriously considering selling the journal rather than finding a new Editor. I was assured that the possible new owner would maintain the scientific quality. I then learned that the potential buyers were two advertising men in New York who probably intended to convert the journal into a "controlled circulation vehicle." In August 1973, Dr. Richard Wechsler of Pittsburgh, a member of the Editorial Board, visited me at our summer place on an island in Maine. Inevitably, we discussed the future of the journal; my position was that I had been Editor for five years, and it was somebody else's turn. Also, I pointed out that Harper & Row owned the journal, and I really could do nothing but accept the inevitable demise of the journal. Richard expressed shock and disappointment that I would do so little for a journal for which I had worked so hard. I remember him saying, "What about the young investigators who have published their good work in the journal in the expectation that it will continue to exist and be respectable on their list of publications"? His criticism of my defeatist attitude was quite justified, and I began to think of what we might do to save the journal. Together we planned how we might secure some continuing financial support in order to buy the journal. Within six weeks, Richard Wechsler had a promise of the modest backing of an educational foundation. The fall of that year was spent by Richard and me finding a new publisher. It is interesting
Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979)
to note that Harper & Row proposed to publish the journal on contract after they had sold it to the new company, Digestive Diseases Systems, Inc. This company was formed expressly for the purpose of owning and insuring the survival of the journal. The January 1974 issue was published by Plenum Publishing Corporation. There were five new Associate Editors: (Frank Brooks, Alastair Connell, Steven Schenker, Paul Sherlock, and Richard Wechsler), and a larger Editorial Board. The Associate Editors supervised the critical review of articles, and my office became a triage station. In May 1976, a committee of Richard Wechsler, Alastair Connell, Charles Code, and John Farrar began the search for a new Editor. Sidney F. Phillips a c c e p t e d the j o u r n a l ' s invitation to be Editor and assumed the duties on July 15, 1977. I was associated continuously with The American Journal of Digestive Diseases from 1960 to 1977, with the exception of the years 1965 to 1968 when I was on the Editorial Board of Gastroenterology. I am probably almost as sentimental about the journal as Beaumont Cornell was, and I certainly lack the objectivity to judge the importance of the journal to the subspecialty of gastroenterology. Others must do that. I can say that my years with the journal and with my colleagues have been enormously stimulating, very satisfying, and great fun. JOHN T . FARRAR, M D
ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am indebted to Dr. James D. Boyle, Archivist of the American Gastroenterological Association for his help in providing information and guidance. REFERENCES 1. Lyon BBV: The affiliation of the journal with the American Gastro-Enterological Association. Am J Dig Dis 1:415, 1934 2. Cornell BS: Announcement. Am J Dig Dis 4:53-54, 1937 3. Cornell BS: A preliminary report on the treatment of cancer by a new principle extracted from nuclear material and called ANOMIN. Supplement to August 1937 issue. Am J Dig Dis 4, 1937 4. A brief history of the journal and its editors. Gastroenterology 54:693-700, 1968 5. Cornell BS: Ave Atque Vale. Am J Dig Dis 9:431-432, 1942
3
The American Journal of Digestive Diseases 1934-1977
The history of a subspecialty medical journal is not the stuff to quicken the pulse nor will it yield resonant conclusions or universal truths. There are some compensations to reading a history of this journal: it is recent enough to involve the egos of many persons now living; it reflects the recent growth of our subspecialty; and lastly, there are those great antidotes to boredom, conflict, and controversy. In March 1934, The American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition was started by Beaumont S. Cornell, MD, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The publisher was the Sandfield Publishing Co., and the E d i t o r - i n - C h i e f was F r a n k Smithies, MD. Dr. Smithies had been president of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1929. This was alleged to be the first journal in North America which was devoted exclusively to digestive diseases. The Editorial Council numbered ninety-three, including internists, surgeons, radiologists, and physiologists. The list includes eminent scientists, many of whose names are familiar 55 years later. Because the Councilreads like a Who's Who in gastroenterology, it is hard to choose names to demonstrate the high quality of the participants. The following will suffice: Walter Alvarez, Arthur Bloomfield, Henry Bockus, Burrill Crohn, Julius Friedenwald, Sara Jordan, B.B. Vincent Lyon, Martin Rehfuss, Leon Schiff, Franklin White, Lester Dragstedt, John Finney, Frank Lahey, Alton Ochsner, Chevalier Jackson, Boris Babkin, F r e d e r i c k Banting, " A j a x " Carlson, Andrew Ivy. It is not clear what the role was for this impressive collection of physicians and scientists, nor is it known how long they served. I find the list repeated with several additions in the April 1934 issue, but the Editorial Board or Council is never again listed in the bound copies until the new series in 1956. The first issue included clinical and research arti-
cles, editorials, book reviews, and an abstract section. The March, April, and May issues were " o f such high caliber" in the opinion of officers of the American Gastroenterological Association that in August of 1934 the journal became the "Official Journal" of that Association. In an editorial (1) announcing this affiliation, Dr. B.B. Vincent Lyon, president of the AGA, was high in his praise of the journal and said, we predict that this journal will have a brilliant future so long as it continues to maintain its high standard of editorial supervision of accepted manuscripts and other subject matter and thus will serve to fill a much needed void [sic!]. If this is accomplished, it will certainly enhance the value of American medical literature. Whenever it ceases to do so, the American Gastro-Enterological Association will withdraw its support and seek elsewhere9 9
.
.
While Dr. Lyon praised and then threatened, one hopes he was not planning to seek another "much needed void." The year 1937 was an eventful year for the journal. Frank Smithies, Editor-in-Chief, died on February 9 of a cerebral hemorrhage and the post of Editor-in-Chief was abolished. Editorial "responsibility was placed upon a group of men comprising an Editorial Board" (2). The group consisted of Walter Alvarez, Rochester, Minnesota, Burrill B. Crohn, New York, New York, Henry L. Bockus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Sara M. Jordan, B o s t o n , M a s s a c h u s e t t s . The position of Supervising Editor was retained by Dr. Cornell, and all manuscripts were to be sent to him. He states in an Editorial that "they [manuscripts] will be sent at once for review, suggestion, criticism, and acceptance or rejection to appropriate members of the Board or Council" (ibid). In August of 1937, a supplement to the journal was sent out consisting of a prominent title page and a one-and-a-half-page article by Cornell himself in
Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979) 0163-2116/79/0100-0001503.00/1 9 1979 Digestive Disease Systems, Inc.
FARRAR which he announced a new treatment for cancer (3). The paper includes one brief case report and a series of hypotheses suggesting that cancer is a deficiency state. When one reads the article, notes its lack of substance, and reads the title page of the journal which prominently displays the statement, "The Official Publication of the American GastroEnterological Association," it is easy to understand why members of the AGA reacted negatively. They did. In response to the expressions of displeasure by the AGA, Dr. Cornell declared in a letter that the journal would cease to be the organ of the AGA. This declaration appears to have been ignored by him and everyone else. No mention of it appears in the pages of the journal. However, in 1938 Dr. Cornell resigned from the AGA in protest against the criticism of the special supplement. From my reading of the early journals and some of the correspondence of Dr. Cornell, I conclude that he was a conscientious physician who was quite sincere in his attempts to advance medical knowledge. Tragically, he committed one of the classic sins in science. He lost his objectivity in his enthusiasm for his new " c u r e , " and, in all probability, used his position as Supervising Editor to publish a report with great fanfare without ever consulting the Editorial Board or Editorial Council. The response was predictable. A contract was negotiated (renegotiated?) in 1938 between the AGA and Dr. Cornell, who was apparently the owner of the Sandfield Publishing Company. This contract provided the mechanism for the AGA to select the Editor-in-Chief. However, the contract stated that in case of disagreement as to the choice of an Editor, "the Sandfield Publishing Company shall have the deciding voice." Such a clause did not augur well for the journal's immediate future ! In August 1938, Walter Alvarez became Editorin-Chief, and the relationship between the AGA and the journal appeared stable. However, by the spring of 1941, the AGA became dissatisfied with the journal's advertising policy and with the quality of some of the articles published (4). Dr. Andrew C. Ivy was appointed by the AGA as a "Committee of One to take up with Dr. Cornell the objections to the journal." The AGA offered to buy the journal, but negotiations were fruitless. One June 15, 1942 a notice terminating the contract was sent to Cornell by the AGA. Dr. James D. Boyle, Archivist for the AGA has sent me a copy of a letter from Cornell to Ivy, dated August 10, 1942, in which Cornell offers to
2
sell the journal for "forty thousand dollars." Why this was written after the AGA had decided to start its own journal is not clear, but I suspect Ivy was making one final attempt to buy the journal. In the December 1942 issue of the journal, Dr. Cornell wrote a friendly, rather gracious editorial in which he announced the separation of the AGA and the AJDD. Toward the end of the editorial, he noted with regret the "secession" (!) of the AGA (5). From 1942 to 1955, Dr. Cornell edited the journal, but it is impossible to tell from reading the bound volumes what editorial assistance he received. By 1955, the number of pages printed per year had decreased to 354 from 970 in 1936, and the circulation had dropped to 1100. Although occasional good articles appeared and well-known authors are represented during the period from 1945 to 1955, the overall quality of the articles is quite low. At the end of 1955, the journal was bought by Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., a subsidiary of Harper & Row, for a modest sum. The Hoeber Company was started by Mr. Hoeber's father early in the century to publish and distribute medical books of high quality. In 1935, the senior Mr. Hoeber sold his business to Harper & Row. From a recent conversation with Mr. Paul Hoeber, I conclude that Dr. Cornell was very sentimental about the journal, and his main interest in selling was to allow the journal to continue to exist. Beaumont Cornell became Editor Emeritus and died in 1958. In January 1956, the new series started under the joint editorship of Henry D. Janowitz, MD, and Maxwell H. Poppel, MD, and an Editorial Board of eleven members. The following year, E. Clinton Texter, MD, replaced Dr. Poppel and for the next nine years, Janowitz and Texter guided the journal with the assistance of an Editorial Board whose members served for four-year terms. In 1964, Nicholas Hightower became Associate Editor. The years between 1956 and 1966 were important ones for both the journal and the subspecialty. There was a steady increase in training and research in gastroenterology and a commensurate increase in the number and quality of articles submitted to the journal. The Editors were aggressive and hardworking, and the Board members were often the rising leaders in the field. In 1966, Dr. Janowitz stepped down after ten years as coeditor, and for two years Dr. Texter was editor. In 1968, Harper & Row chose me as the new Editor. From 1968 to 1973, the Associate Editor, NichDigestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979)
JOURNAL HISTORY olas Hightower, and the Editorial Board and I viewed our principal tasks to be two: (1) improving the quality of the papers published and (2) making the journal useful and readable. Each original paper was critically reviewed by two referees besides the Editor. The Board members and outside reviewers worked very hard to improve important papers which required revision. To make the journal more useful and readable, we added new features such as Multidisciplinary Conferences, Progress Reports and C o m p a r a t i v e G a s t r o e n t e r o l o g y , and Controversies in Gastroenterology. The journal continued the improvement started by Henry Janowitz and Clinton Texter. In 1973, I told the owner, Harper & Row, that I was ready to step down as Editor when they could find a replacement. In response to my request to be replaced, a representative of the company indicated that they were seriously considering selling the journal rather than finding a new Editor. I was assured that the possible new owner would maintain the scientific quality. I then learned that the potential buyers were two advertising men in New York who probably intended to convert the journal into a "controlled circulation vehicle." In August 1973, Dr. Richard Wechsler of Pittsburgh, a member of the Editorial Board, visited me at our summer place on an island in Maine. Inevitably, we discussed the future of the journal; my position was that I had been Editor for five years, and it was somebody else's turn. Also, I pointed out that Harper & Row owned the journal, and I really could do nothing but accept the inevitable demise of the journal. Richard expressed shock and disappointment that I would do so little for a journal for which I had worked so hard. I remember him saying, "What about the young investigators who have published their good work in the journal in the expectation that it will continue to exist and be respectable on their list of publications"? His criticism of my defeatist attitude was quite justified, and I began to think of what we might do to save the journal. Together we planned how we might secure some continuing financial support in order to buy the journal. Within six weeks, Richard Wechsler had a promise of the modest backing of an educational foundation. The fall of that year was spent by Richard and me finding a new publisher. It is interesting
Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1 (January 1979)
to note that Harper & Row proposed to publish the journal on contract after they had sold it to the new company, Digestive Diseases Systems, Inc. This company was formed expressly for the purpose of owning and insuring the survival of the journal. The January 1974 issue was published by Plenum Publishing Corporation. There were five new Associate Editors: (Frank Brooks, Alastair Connell, Steven Schenker, Paul Sherlock, and Richard Wechsler), and a larger Editorial Board. The Associate Editors supervised the critical review of articles, and my office became a triage station. In May 1976, a committee of Richard Wechsler, Alastair Connell, Charles Code, and John Farrar began the search for a new Editor. Sidney F. Phillips a c c e p t e d the j o u r n a l ' s invitation to be Editor and assumed the duties on July 15, 1977. I was associated continuously with The American Journal of Digestive Diseases from 1960 to 1977, with the exception of the years 1965 to 1968 when I was on the Editorial Board of Gastroenterology. I am probably almost as sentimental about the journal as Beaumont Cornell was, and I certainly lack the objectivity to judge the importance of the journal to the subspecialty of gastroenterology. Others must do that. I can say that my years with the journal and with my colleagues have been enormously stimulating, very satisfying, and great fun. JOHN T . FARRAR, M D
ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am indebted to Dr. James D. Boyle, Archivist of the American Gastroenterological Association for his help in providing information and guidance. REFERENCES 1. Lyon BBV: The affiliation of the journal with the American Gastro-Enterological Association. Am J Dig Dis 1:415, 1934 2. Cornell BS: Announcement. Am J Dig Dis 4:53-54, 1937 3. Cornell BS: A preliminary report on the treatment of cancer by a new principle extracted from nuclear material and called ANOMIN. Supplement to August 1937 issue. Am J Dig Dis 4, 1937 4. A brief history of the journal and its editors. Gastroenterology 54:693-700, 1968 5. Cornell BS: Ave Atque Vale. Am J Dig Dis 9:431-432, 1942
3
