Joseph R. Elkinton, 91; Doctor, Author, Editor
Dr. Joseph Russell Elkinton, 91, physician, author and veteran editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, died Saturday in a Concord, Mass., hospital of unstated causes.
A native of Moylou, Pa., Elkinton graduated from Haverford College and Harvard Medical School and was a research fellow at Yale.
A Quaker, he was interested in the relationship between religion and science, and in 1948 founded the chemical section at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Although he was a respected scientist and taught and practiced medicine, Elkinton was also accomplished in the literary arts. He co-authored an important textbook, “Body Fluids,” but also wrote the books “The Quaker Heritage in Medicine,” “Bird on a Rocking Chair” and “Footnotes on the Sands of Time.”
Most notably, Elkinton from 1960 until his retirement in 1971 was editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, the journal of the American College of Physicians, which he helped make one of the world’s most influential medical publications.
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