Duties and qualifications of physicians, an introductory lecture / by John Ware.

  • Ware John, 1795-1864.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Duties and qualifications of physicians, an introductory lecture / by John Ware. 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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    in tlie same breath with Mansfield, Burke, and Johnson. But what does the world know of him now, or what did his contemporaries know of him then ? Little more than that he was a very respect- able surgeon, which, in comparison with the actual character and desert of the individual, is much as if one were to say of Lord Mansfield that he was a respectable lawyer. Not that the world is disposed to deny the praise of greatness to men eminent in our profes- sion. The truth is, that their claims are not, and cannot be, faii-ly brought before it. It does not understand the measure by which their qualifica- tions are to be estimated. Few, except physicians themselves, are capable of appreciating the merits of a medical man; and, more than this, his talents are exerted in a field so remote from common observation, that the materials for a judgment are not readily afforded even to those capable of judging. This is no ground of complaint. It is no injustice. We perceive no disposition to rob members of our profession of their due share of fame, whether contemporary or posthumous. We state merely the fact, that they do not attain to that reputation, which the same talents, industry, and success would have ensured to them in other walks of life. This fact grows out of the nature of the duties, and of their relation to society.