Nephrology should Trail Blaze the End of Chronic Disease

Abstract

If history can serve as a guide quite some time can lapse between the inception of a
concept and its proof. For instance, Einstein had described the special theory of relativity in
1905, but he published the general theory of relativity only after thinking about the problems
for 10 years. On March 29, 1919, the opportunity to get proof came. British Astronomer Sir
Arthur Eddington had traveled to Príncipe Island off the western coast of Africa. His team
photographed star fields during the eclipse and compared the photos with those of the same star
field taken when the sun was not present. Eddington found the apparent location of the stars had
shifted, just as was predicted by Einstein’s theory. That 15-year delay between conception and
proof did not cause suffering or deaths as was the case with the germ theory of Semmelweis,
who did not live to see his momentous insight being accepted. He was declined reappointment
and admitted to an asylum where he died after only two weeks with the following on his mind
“When I look back upon the past, I can only dispel the sadness which falls upon me by gazing
into that happy future when the infection will be banished . . . The conviction that such a time
must inevitably sooner or later arrive will cheer my dying hour