Medical ethics : a discourse delivered in the theatre of the Meath Hospital, November 1, 1869 / by William Stokes.

  • Stokes, William, 1804-1878.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical ethics : a discourse delivered in the theatre of the Meath Hospital, November 1, 1869 / by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    MEDICAL ETHICS, (Sec. &c. Gentlemen,—Mayl ask of you, on this our first occasion of meeting, to refrain from expressions of approbation of, or dissent from, anything I may say in this discourse ? Remember that we are assembled in an Hospital, the house of the sick, and that everything which might disturb the repose of the inmates should be religiously avoided. In discourses of this kind, the speaker may often be led directly or indirectly to give undue prominence to such parts of our coercive curricula as he himself pro- fesses, and subjects such as those of anatomy, chemistry, and physiology may be too highly exalted as the ABC of Medicine. These things are not the A B C of Medicine. We may know them all, and yet be unfit to treat the most common case of disease. I am not going to tread the beaten ground of Medical education; but I take this opportunity of saying that, as Medicine deals with life, the amount of light thrown upon it by the study of that which has no life has been hitherto very small. Do not misunderstand me as undervaluing the studies in ques-