Additional hints respecting the improvement of the system of medical instruction followed in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / [by John Thomson].

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Additional hints respecting the improvement of the system of medical instruction followed in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / [by John Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    62/64 (page 62)
    I do not know, nor can I conceive, any human contrivance that can more effectually and irresistibly oblige the Physi¬ cian to study carefully the case of his patient; to attend to every symptom, or change of symptom, in it; to exert himself to the utmost for his patient’s relief, and, at the same time, to be as cautious as possible in the remedies that he employs; than to find himself under the necessity of giving a minute account of every thing that he has done, in a very public manner, and before a number of compe¬ tent judges. I do not mean to say, that such a system ever can be established, or that in general it is necessary, on account of the ignorance, laziness, indifference, negli¬ gence, or rashness of Physicians; but I say, with confi¬ dence, that, if such a system were established, no patient could suffer by it, and many would profit greatly.” If, indeed, you advert to the necessary consequences of the system of Clinical Instruction at present pursued in the Infirmary, in relation to the comfort of the Patients; to the crowding of the Students into particular Wards to such an extent as to render it a work of no small physical exertion for the most diligent Students to obtain even a glimpse of the ordinary Patients, and much more so of one whose case is regarded as peculiarly interesting; to the fact that the Wards so crowded are those which contain Patients who have for the most part been selected on account of their complaints being of a highly aggravated description, ren¬ dering them the most liable to be injured by noise, and the