[Review of works on medical ethics / by Thomas Percival and others. Anon.

  • Brown, John, 1810-1882
Date:
1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Review of works on medical ethics / by Thomas Percival and others. Anon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    abllng our fellow-men to do the same—but constantly watching at the ja7iua vitce et mortis^ our main duty being to keep men alive. Let us remember what is involved in the enjoyment and the loss of life—that perilous and inestimable something, which we* all know how much we ourselves prize, and for which, as we have the word, long ago, of a personage ^ more distinguished for his talents than his virtues, and uttered in a presence where even he dared not tell a lie direct, that all that a man hath he will give,’’ so let it be our urgent moral duty, as its conservators, to give all that we have, our knowledge, our affections, our energies, our virtue {aperr], virtus, the very essence or pith of a man), in making our patients healthy, long-lived, and happy. We conclude with two quotations, the first from the mouth of one of the best men of our profession— one of the greatest public benefactors—one of the truest and most genial of friends—and of whose merits we would say more, were he not still, to our great comfort, in the midst of us, for we agree with the ancients in this, as in some other things, holding, as they did, that it was not becomino: to sacrifice to their heroes till after sunset. My religion, as it affects my life to God, to myself, to my fellow-men, consists mainly of wonder and gratitnder This is the religion of paradise and of childhood. It will not be easy to find a better, even in our enlightened days; only it must be a rational wonder, a productive gratitude—the gratitude that rests not con¬ tented with the emotion, but goes at once into the motive—and a wonder which, in honouring God, knows him, and in honouring all men, respects its possessor. The next is the admonition we have already referred to, by Syden¬ ham. Our readers will find, at its close, the oldest and best kind of homoeopathy—a kind which will survive disease and the doctors, and will never, as may be said of another, cure nothing except itself. “ He who gives himself to the study and work of medicine ought seriously to ponder these four things—1st, That he must, one day, give an account to the Supreme Judge of the lives of the sick committed to his care. 2dly, That whatsoever of art, or of science, he has by the Divine goodness attained, is to be directed mainly to the glory of the Almighty, and the safety of mankind, and that it is a dishonour to himself and them, to make these celestial gifts subservient to the vile lusts of avarice and ambition. Moreover, 3rdly, that he has undertaken the charge of no mean or ignoble creature, and tliat in order to his appreciating the true worth of the human race, he should not forget that tlie only-begotten Son of God became a man, and thus far ennobled, by his own dignity, the nature he assumed. And lastly, that as he is himself not exempted from the common lot, and is liable and exposed to the same lawc A mortality, the same miseries and pains, as are all the rest; so he may endeavour the more diligently, and with a more tender affection, as being himself a fellow- sufferer to help them who are sick.” For to take a higher, the highest example, we must ^^be touched with a feeling of the infirmities ” of our patients, else all our skill and knowledge, will go but half-way to relieve or cure.