Medical etiquette / [J.W. Ballantyne].

Date:
[1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical etiquette / [J.W. Ballantyne]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    MEDICAL ETIQUETTE Gentlemen, In Medical Etiquette we find a very extra- ordinary diverf^euce of opinion existing in the minds of medical men as to what is, and what is not, professional conduct. The whole subject of medical etiquette is an extremely difficult and involved one, and to the young practitioner it is, I think, almost an unknown branch of study. During a course of four or five years' training in our medical schools, students hear no mention made of the rules of professional conduct— rules of which the due observance may make their career successful, whilst their neglect may equally mar the outset of a promising professional life. I have, indeed, during the past four years, strongly advocated the establishment of a short course of lectures (say six) upon the subject of Medical Etiquette in this University, for I think it is much to be regretted that a school, which sends out every year%ome two hundred medical men so thoroughly equipped for the practice of their profession, should not at the same time give them proper instruction as to the rules which are to govern their twofold relationship to patients and to brother practitioners. That great ignorance exists in the minds of many medical men with regard to professional conduct is fully attested by the fact, that several medical journals, of which we may specially mention that of the British Medical Association, devote a considerable portion of their space each week to the consideration of difHcult questions of Medical Ethics. As m\ght have been expected, several works bearing upon the subject of medical etiquette have been written, of wliicli