This month’s “Clinical Issues” article, “Dry hematology: its development, function, and role in point of care testing,” by Robert A. Levine, MD, is different from most articles you will find in that section of MLO. Not that it isn’t sufficiently, well, “clinical” to fit the bill; it is a rigorously scientific discussion of Quantitative Buffy Coat Analysis hematology, and the science and technology related to it, by an outstanding physician who has had a parallel career as an inventor of such instrumentation and developer of ever-more innovative applications for it. What makes Dr. Levine’s article different is its style and voice—what they taught me when I was a graduate student in English literature to call its “mode of discourse.”
The article is not just a scientific article, but also a story—Dr. Levine’s story. It is told in the first-person (“I”) voice, and it recounts events more-or-less in time order. Dr. Levine tells us about his early interest in developing Quantitative Buffy Coat Analysis technology and finding new uses for it, his professional collaboration with his colleague Dr. Wardlaw, his meeting with the “father of modern hematology,” Dr. Maxwell
Wintrobe, and more. His narrative has vivid characters, lively dialogue, anecdotes, humor, even suspense—all woven into a solid fabric of science.
Parts of it remind me of autobiographies by scientists, or of the “creative nonfiction” of superb science writers like Lewis Thomas and Stephen Jay Gould. To me, it reads like an engaging, interesting informal essay.
Dr. Levine’s article is also an homage—a tribute to his mentor, Dr Wintrobe. He skillfully conveys his and Dr. Wardlaw’s excitement at meeting this pioneering scientist, and the valuable collaboration that ensued among them during the later years of Dr. Wintrobe’s life. I suspect that Dr. Wintrobe was as pleased to meet two eager disciples as they were to interact with him.
The relationship Dr. Levine describes reminds me of a quote attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, the towering 17th-century man of science: “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”
As clinical laboratory science has developed over the past century into the rigorous discipline it is today, giants like Dr. Wintrobe have shown the way, passing their knowledge on to succeeding generations. Someone once commented that the history of knowledge is like a relay race. Each generation passes the baton to the next.
Like most good writing, Dr. Levine’s article goes beyond itself, inspiring readers to learn more. It led me to a few websites to learn more about Dr. Wintrobe, who lived from 1901 to 1986. I learned a fascinating story of an immigrant who faced many professional and personal challenges and much adversity, but triumphed over all to basically invent modern hematology. He literally wrote the book—Clinical Hematology— on an emerging field, and his invention of the Wintrobe hematocrit was just one of many significant scientific achievements to his credit. I direct readers to a biography by Herbert L. Fred, MD, MACP, at The National Center for Biotechnology website (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1995040).
In shepherding Dr. Levine’s manuscript through production, I had a chance to speak with him several times. He is a great talker, overflowing with energy and enthusiasm for his subject. He told me it was his 70th birthday. I wished him well, and I thought—he sounds like he’s just getting started! Dr. Levine surely has many more contributions to make to hematology and laboratory science, and I am pleased to share his insights and his vital voice with the readers of MLO.
