A system of personal biologic examinations the condition of adequate medical and scientific conduct of life / George M. Gould.

  • Gould, George Milbrey, 1848-1922.
Date:
[1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A system of personal biologic examinations the condition of adequate medical and scientific conduct of life / George M. Gould. 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.

    12/14 page 12
    daily newspapers as: “A new operation for neurasthenia; craniotomy for unselfishness; preventive inoculations in case of threatened breach of promise; vaccinations for antivivisectionists; damaged heart-valves surgically re- paired while you wait; kidneys transplanted immedi- ately following the next electrocution; complete matura- tion of the artificially fertilized ovum in our new twenty-first century incubator.” The family physician’s function seems to be fast becom- ing that of adviser-in-general and referrer-to-others; the “last straw” is that ethics will not permit these others to divide their fees with him. Nothing in fact is left to him except to have permanent anorexia and to move to a climate in which house and clothing are not necessary—Porto Rico and the Philippines, for exam- ple—providentially supplied,without doubt, for this and similar tariff purposes. But seriously, have we not gone too far with our spe- cialism, and are we not thereby in danger of losing the co-ordinating sense and oversight of the organism as a whole? The specialist can not be dispensed.with. By his aid and through his accuracy medicine must progress; but neither should the generalist be squeezed aside. He is even more necessary. It is his duty to teach his under- officers, the specialists, their proper places, and by his sane and large grasp of all the facts supplied by these subalterns, by his co-ordination of the work of each and of all with his own overlook of organism and life as a whole, he brings cosmos out of chaos, and organic unity out of hundred-eyed and selfish diversity. The special- ist is fatally inclined to treat the disease; to the general • ist must be left the far more important treatment pf the patient. It may seem hard and impertinent to say to an audi- ence of generalists that the generalists have been robbed because of their own fault and negligence. The so-called stealings of the specialists are in reality helpful and if rightly understood they leave the generalist his proper work. Life, it has been said, is made up of little things; and yet life itself is not a little thing. So it is with health, fulness of years, and utilization of powers; they all depend, medically and physiologically, upon little things, and yet compositely, they are “the greatest thing
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3