Queries in medical ethics / [William Fraser].

  • Fraser, William, -1888.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Queries in medical ethics / [William Fraser]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Boswell describes the circumstances as follows:— “ Johnson, with that native fortitude which, amidst all his bodily distress and mental suffer¬ ings, never forsook him, asked Dr. Broc-klesby, as a man in whom he had confidence, to tell him plainly whether he could recover. ‘ Give me,’ said he, ‘ a direct answer.’ The doctor having first asked him if he could bear the whole truth, which way soever it might lead, and being an¬ swered that he could, declared that in his opinion he could not recover without a miracle. ‘ Then,’ said Johnson, ‘ I will take no more physic, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God unclouded.’ In this resolution he persevered, and at the same time used only the weakest kinds of sustenance. Be¬ ing pressed by Mr. Windham to take somewhat more generous nourishment, lest too low a diet should have the very effect which he dreaded, by debilitating his mind, he said, ‘ I will take any¬ thing but inebriating sustenance8.’ ” Query 25.—In cases where, from confirmed structural change of organs, or from other causes, he may have reason to suspect that no remedial treatment will be successful—what is the proper course to be pursued by the medical man who may be called in ? s Boswell’s Life of Johnson, p. 617.
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