A public lecture on medical ethics, and the mutual relations of patients and physician.

A. P. Merrill

Date:: 1857

Credit: A public lecture on medical ethics, and the mutual relations of patients and physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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in the future. In no other departments of human learning and enterprise, has so much been effected for the amelioration of the condition, and the extension of the period of life, of our suffering and dying race; nor have any other departments employed the same amount of intelligence, labor, and self-sacrifice, in their improvement. . , It would hardly seem unreasonable to suppose that such labors, of such men, for such noble purposes, would have escaped all con- demnation and distrust; but the history of the past, and our own . observations of the present, prove it tar otherwise. _ Association for these benevolent objects, has been met by associations m direct opposition to them, and individual effort has constantly encoun- tered individual denunciation; so that it has ever been necessary for this learned and philanthropic profession to contend with active opposition, and the subtleties of ignorance and superstition, as well as with the great difficulties naturally appertaining to the subject of inquiry. Associations of influence, from the number and activity of their members, and individuals of great adroitness and ingenuity, have constantly assailed the profession, by the pro- mulgation of partial and exclusive systems of practice; some con- tending that all remedies for disease should be derived from one of the kingdoms of nature, to the exclusion of the others; some limiting the means of curing disease to a very few, and even to a single remedial agent; some denouncing the use of remedies, the value of which has been tested by the experience of ages; some contending for the sole employment of external measures, and some insisting upon the exclusive use of such infinitesimal quan- tities as to preclude the possibility of physiological effects. No extravagance has been found too great for the adoption of follow- ers—no absurdity too deep to secure adherents. Ignorance and superstition, following the lead of learned, aye, sometimes, pious and clerical folly, have plunged thousands upon thousands into the ranks of opposition to science and intelligence, and hecatombs of the dead bear witness to the disastrous results. In the midst of such impediments and discouragements, we find this noble profession standing firmly for ages, upon the broad plat- form of truth; urging forward their scientific investigations, with- out turning either to the right hand or to the left; maintaining the right with high resolution and firmness of purpose; neglecting no good because it is advocated by charlatans and nostrum-venders, and advocating no error in subserviency to station, ignorance, or prejudice. Aspersion, detraction, and misrepresentation have fallen upon the buckler of the profession, only to rebound in the face of its enemies; and it stands to-day, all the world over, just where it stood a century ago, excepting only the vast advances

A public lecture on medical ethics, and the mutual relations of patients and physician.

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