On the duties of physicians, resulting from their profession / by Thomas Gisborne.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the duties of physicians, resulting from their profession / by Thomas Gisborne. 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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    A certain degree of legal knowledge may be of material use to a Physician, and should be obtained before he commences practice. In cases of great emergency he may not only be consulted respecting the expediency of immediately making a will, but even his assistance in drawing it up may be re- quired. It will be highly serviceable on such occasions that he should be acquainted with the forms necessary to give validity to a testamentary bequest; and also that he should be able at once to determine how the law would dispose of the sick man's property in case of intestacy ; whether his daughters or younger children would be legally entitled to anv share of his fortune ; whether the fortune would be equally divided, when such equality would be improper or unjust; whether diversity of claims and expensive litigations would ensue, without a will, from the nature of the property in question ; and whether the creditors of the defunct would by his neglect be defi-auded of their equitable^ claims. The testimony like- wise which a Physician may be called upon to give in cases of lunacy, of sudden deaths, of suicide, and of duelling, may be rendered more pertinent and impressive by an acquaintance with the laws of the land relating to those subjects. Works of general information and of taste may ' Medical Ethics, by Dr. Percival, p. 44. [chap. iv. § 2.] 2