An address to the graduates of the Medical Department of the University of Michigan on the romance and reality of ancient medicine / by M.A. Patterson.

  • Patterson, M. A.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the graduates of the Medical Department of the University of Michigan on the romance and reality of ancient medicine / by M.A. Patterson. 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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    skill, he was revered for his integrity and humanity, of which no better evidence can be given than the oath he subscribed, which we have copied from the some- what rare work of Dr. Hutchinson, published in Lon- don, in 1779 :— THE OATH OP HIPPOCRATES. I swear by Apollo the Physician, by Esculapius, by his daughters Hygeia and Panacea, and by all the Gods and Goddesses, that, to the best of my power and judgment, I will faithfully observe this oath and obli- gation. The master that has instructed me in the art, I will esteem as my parents, and supply as occasion may require with the comforts and necessaries of life. His children I will regard as my own brothers, and if they desire to learn, I will instruct them in the same art without any reward or obligation. The precepts, the explanations, or whatever else belongs to the art, I will communicate to my own children, to the chil- dren of my master, and to such other pupils as have subscribed to the Physician's oath, and to no other per- sons. My patients shall be treated by me to the best of my power and judgment, in the most salutary man- ner, without any injury or violence. I will neither be prevailed upon by any other to administer pernicious medicines, or be the author of such advice myself. To whatever house I am sent for, I will always make the patient's good my principal aim, avoiding as much as possible all voluntary injury and corruption, whether among men or women, bond and free. And whatever I hear or see in the course of a cure, or otherwise, re- lating to the affairs of life, nobody shall ever know it, if it ought to remain a secret. May I be prospered in life and business, and forever honored and esteemed by all men, as I observe this solemn oath; and may the re- verse of all this be my portion, if I violate and for- swear myself. After Soranus, the historian of Hippocrates, had com- pleted a voluminous account of his discoveries and im- provements in the healing art, he remarked, that medicine was invented by Apollo, improved by Escu-