A letter from a medical student on some moral difficulties in his studies, and on the duty of the state to aid in lessening them : addressed to the Rev. J.H. North.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter from a medical student on some moral difficulties in his studies, and on the duty of the state to aid in lessening them : addressed to the Rev. J.H. North. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    men, I am well aware, deem the occupation of the medical student as unlawful. This I cannot grant, nor while a medical student is it possible that I ever should. With real consideration for those who sup- port this view, which I think most unpractical, and if it were likely to spread, most mischievous, I would remind them that it is scarce reasonable to suppose that the lives and happiness of the living, dependant on anatomical study, are not of more value than the bodies of the dead; and would ask, whether there is any thing contrary to reason and true religion in searching for charity’s sake, that which the ordinance of God has permitted to be prey to worms. Some on the other hand, speak of all reverence as absurd: when these persons act on their view, they put themselves (theoretically) out of the pale of civili- zation. Things being so, it is of the utmost importance to us students to consider attentively with what feelings all the rest of mankind do now regard, and ever have regarded the presence of the dead, and the more while we are yet unhardened to the sight of them. For other men are not cold and reckless in the presence of a corpse : they cannot laugh and talk as if they were at their own table, but are struck with some solemn reverence, or, at least, with something of reli- gious awe. And, from whatever cause this arises, it is a fact which has obtained from the creation to the present hour, with every one who has not entered on anatomical study. So in former days it was with the 8