Medicine and the public / by S. Squire Sprigge.

  • Squire Sprigge
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medicine and the public / by S. Squire Sprigge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ There are few positions more embarrassing than that of men who hold moderate opinions in regard to questions upon which excitement is running high. They are obnoxious to the partisans whom they have left behind, and to the partisans of whose extrava¬ gance they fall short, and are regarded by each side as combining the demerits of an antagonist and a deserter. Each party equally despises the luke-warm zeal and time-serving temper which can only take up half a cause. The pursuer of the golden mean must be content with the intrinsic value of his immediate course, he will win no sympathy and must submit to be cast out as crotchety by every enthusiastic mind.” I feel that many who have the cause of the medical profession at heart will consider my conclusions in respect of reform to be inadequate. I shall be only too glad to learn that any more drastic measures are practicable; my moderation has not come from half¬ heartedness, but from a belief that the cause of reform is badly served by a perpetual bellowing for what never will be obtained. I have tried to urge the doing only of what can be readily done. But though I have been thus limited in what I have suggested as being immediately necessary for the removal of many of the disabilities of the medical profession, so as to make that profession more valuable to the public, I set no bounds to the possibilities of medicine as a profession in the future. The fact that after much complaining, after the recapitulation of a series of abuses, only a few suggestions for reform follow must not be taken to mean that a perfect condition of things will soon be reached. On the contrary, I would have it understood—for I believe
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