The moral aspects of medical life / consisting of the Akesios of K.F.H. Marx ; translated from the German, with biographical notices and illustrative remarks, by James Mackness.
- Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The moral aspects of medical life / consisting of the Akesios of K.F.H. Marx ; translated from the German, with biographical notices and illustrative remarks, by James Mackness. 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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![furnished with a motive and an opportunity for arranging his worldly affairs, in the settlement of which the future comfort and happiness of his family may be very deeply concerned, for making his will, and also for more solemn preparation for the awful change that awaits him. For these reasons medical men have, in all periods, endeavoured ! to read in the phenomena presented to them by diseases, I the event to which those diseases tend. To form an ac- I curate opinion on this head, however, is one thing, to divulge ! it another. There is always some risk of losing as well as ] of gaining credit by strong statements, and predictions of I the death or the recovery of a patient. If you give an un- favorable prognosis, you have a good chance of losing your 1 patient altogether; his friends argue, very naturally, that I if you know of no means of safety for him, some other practitioner may, and they will grasp at whatever straw 1 comes near them. Do not suppose that this is merely a I selfish view of the matter j it is often of much moment to the patient himself that he should not be tempted to put I his life under the charge of impostors, who will feed his I hopes and promise him largely, and torture him, perhaps, Sjf^with their discipline, and have no mercy upon his pocket. i|;Many an instance have I known of persons dying of con- . |, sumption, who, when given over by their regular attendants, I have been brought to London, at considerable expense, to , exchange the comforts of home for the inconveniences of a ' i hired lodging, that they might be cured by that ignorant ' and cruel and rapacious quack, Mr. St. John Long. There , j are other reasons, too, why we must sometimes conceal the . truth from our patients. It often happens that a person ,| is extremely ill, and in great danger, but yet may recover ii| if he is not informed of his peril. To tell a person in these circumstances that he is likely to die, is to destroy ibis chance of recovery. You kill him if you take away his hope of living. It must be confessed, that the duty of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22316188_0303.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
