Hints respecting the improvement of the literary & scientific education of candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / by a graduate of King's College, Aberdeen [i.e. John Thomson].

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints respecting the improvement of the literary & scientific education of candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / by a graduate of King's College, Aberdeen [i.e. John Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    portion of the diseases which are regarded as strictly chirurgical, but also that there are few diseases which come under the care of the Physician, in which morbid affections, requiring the manual aid or practical skill of the Surgeon, do not frequently occur,” “ The importance therefore to Society, of every student of medicine being obliged to obtain, not only a general, but a minute, knowledge of Physic and Surgery, must appear obvious when we reflect how very small a proportion of those who are educated for the medical profession find it possible, in after-life, to devote their attention exclusively to one of these branches, and to forego the advantages which they reap from the prac¬ tice of the other. It is in great cities only, that the distinction in the exercise of the medical profession, between Physician and Surgeon, has been, or can be, observed: and even in those cities where this distinc¬ tion has prevailed in the highest degree, how small a portion of the community, it may be asked, has enjoyed the advantages supposed to be derived from this divi¬ sion of the healing art ? The rich, it is true, may in all cases of danger, w hether real or imaginary, add the at¬ tendance of the physician or surgeon to that of their ordinary medical guide, the apothecary: but the mid¬ dling classes and the poor, who form the greatest body in every community, must either be contented to live and to die without the advice or assistance of those who practice physic and surgery as distinct professions, or betake themselves to some of the asylums or hospitals that are maintained at the public expence. A physician in a large city ought to be regarded as a practitioner, to