A little more than kin

The most sincere encomium to the medical profession known to me is the invariable habit of US publishers of prominently appending MD to the name of any American doctor who writes a book. The fact that the author is a doctor attests automatically to the seriousness and, above all, the veracity of the contents. Mere PhDs are not treated in the same way: for academics lie or make mistakes, but doctors never. You can always trust a doctor.

British publishers are less respectful of our great profession, but in 1947 the Vision Press published an edition of Hamlet with “a psychological study by Ernest Jones MD,” whose name with degree is very …