Letters to a young physician just entering upon practice / by James Jackson.

  • Jackson, James, 1777-1867.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters to a young physician just entering upon practice / by James Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to aid you, and which the hooks do not say much about. I shall not be perfectly methodical, yet I shall endeavor to hold to some plan. This may be regarded as an introductory letter, in which I may treat of matters and things in general. Ours is said to be a liberal profession. This is often said, with some vague notions of its dignity, by those who are not aware why it has been called so. It has been customary, you know, for those, who designed to acquire a knowledge of any mechanic art, to be bound as apprentices to some master-workman. Now, an apprentice is a servant, though he may not be a menial servant. He works for his master's benefit, and at his master's bidding. It was the case formerly, and I believe it is so at the present day, in our father- land, and in Europe generally, that common surgeons and apothecaries learned their arts in the same way. But it was never so as to physicians. They did not pursue their studies under bonds, but like clergymen and lawyers, as freemen. Hence the professions of these three descriptions of men have been called lib- eral. At present, you know, physicians and surgeons take the same rank, or nearly so, in England, and altogether so in this country. Indeed, with very rare exceptions, the two professions are not distinct among us.