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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    ployed by them on a future occasion. Nor are you to look for what is called Medical gratitude, and you will be saved many a heart-burning. You may have brought your patient through a terrible illness, and exerted your best skill in the case ; but another occasion arises in his own person, or that of one of his family. If he by any circumstance is led to believe that by employing ano- ther the chances of cure will be increased by an infini- tesimal degree, you may be discarded ; and you have no cause of complaint. It is unreasonable to expect that the smallest presumed chance of a favourable result should be given up for your sake, or in consideration of your former services. Preserve your own indepen- dence, be free from self-seeking, eschew servility, and the public will respect you the more. While you do your duty to your patients, hold them with a thread of silk, of cobweb. In relation to society, no high-minded man will ever touch on the subject of his success in practice ; and I would counsel you, when the belief in quackery is spoken of in a mixed company, to remain silent. If you say that it would be well for all that the al- leged cures brought forward were real, you will be met by the assertion that they were so, for in all such cases the public use the post Jioc ergo pvpter hoc argument with- out seeing its fallacy. If you condescend to discussion you are set down as an interested witness. You will do well to remember, in reference to this matter, that there is a condition of the mind in which the reception of the false is preferred to that of the true, and, while in this condition, it will not be convinced of its error thouo-h one should rise from tlic dead. With the progress of