[Premature death and longevity of physicians].
The author has divided his work into parts. The first part entitled "Premature Death of Physicians" is dedicated to those who started their research, scientific works and fruitful medical practice but the premature death has stopped their lives and activities. Death causes are presented in ten chapters (groups of causes), i.e. Tuberculosis - Other Lung Diseases - Heart and Vessel Diseases - Septicaemiae - Infectious Diseases in Subgroups: Typhus, Plague, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, Influenza, Malaria, Smallpox, etc. - Encephalopathies and Mental Diseases - Malignant Neoplasms - Noninfectious Unit Diseases - Accidents - Manslaughters - Death Sentences - Suicides - Not Settled Causes of Death. There are in total 283 biographies in the first part. The second part "Longevity of Physicians" is much longer than the first one and contains 509 biographies of doctor, scientists, research workers and practitioners, meritorious in the history of medicine who attained at least 80 years of age. The biographies are arranged in 22 chapters, one for every year from 80 years of age assumed as the beginning of longevity up to 104 years in one of the cases. In each chapter the biographies are arranged in the alphabetical order. In the Epilogue the author presents shortly his conclusions and observations related to the first part and wider commentaries for the second part.