Clinics: The Court of Last Resort

Ever since the early years of the 20th century, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has enjoyed a reputation as "the court of last resort" for the sick from all parts of the world. When their own doctors despaired of them, or when they despaired of their doctors, patients traveled to the little prairie town and there awaited the word of Mayo's medical sages with the same faith and assurance that the ancients carried to the shrine of the oracle at Delphi. Even today, when the U.S. has at least a dozen similar...

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