Medical profession

“ Some day, perhaps, the medical profession will do the public the great service of issuing some authoritative statement about the physical aspects of the matter, for there are issues with which only medical men can deal wisely. ”

“ The medical profession should be made to understand the importance of public health work, should have a general comprehension of the methods used in its execution and should particularly develop a sympathetic and co-operative mental attitude. ”

“ It can no longer be regarded as derogatory to the medical profession to promote the careful treatment of men and women who are suffering from a disease so injurious, and in mentioning the step which his Excellency has taken, he desires me to indicate the extreme importance in the first instance of medical officers being prepared to study and practice this particular branch of their professional work, under the assurance that their doing so must certainly result in the recognition of their efforts. ”

“ It is manifest to all that a person engaging in the practice of medicine or surgery as a profession is holding himself out to the world, and especially to his patients, as one qualified by education and experience to possess more than ordinary skill and ability to deal with the great problems of health and life. ”

“ Strong told his subordinates; and, enlisting the services of the great body of physicians,—there is no other class of men so trained and inspired to altruistic public service as the medical profession,—he instituted a house-to-house search for hidden or undiscovered cases. ”

“ Among the various avocations of men, that of the physician deserves to be placed in the foremost rank. The profession is founded in the multiplicity of diseases to which humanity is liable, and in the medical qualities of certain substances, which have been found to supply a remedy. ”

“ There is another profession, to the members of which, I think, a certain preliminary knowledge of physical science might be quite as valuable as to the medical man. The practitioner of medicine sets before himself the noble object of taking care of man's bodily welfare ”

“ A patient suffering from a disease belonging to the last class remains well as long as he continues the use of medicine, but relapses as soon as the treatment is stopped, just as a tottering house collapses on the removal of the props. The physician is advised to refrain from treating a disease which is quite incurable.* [2] The other two classes of diseases should be treated with all possible care and skill. In order to acquire success in his profession, the physician is expected to know both the theoretical and the practical sides of the science of medicine. ”

“ If they cure the Patient, both of them are extolled as very eminent Physicians: but when the Imposter performs a cure alone, he has all the Praise to himself, and soon becomes so well established in his Profession, that he is esteemed fit to commence Doctor Maker, and in a few months is furnished by his Ignorant employers, with a Number of Pupils. ”

“ The growth of this and the neighbouring colonies calls aloud for a medical institution. The increasing number of inhabitants demands an increase of those who exercise the profession of Medicine and Surgery, and ought to be an argument with all of us, who regard either the present or future advantages of the country, to attend seriously to the importance of the subject. ”

“ The medical profession is justly conservative. Human life should not be considered as the proper material for wild experiments. ”

“ Before the reader is introduced to the modest country medical practitioner who is to be the chief personage of the following tale, it will be well that he should be made acquainted with some particulars as to the locality in which, and the neighbours among whom, our doctor followed his profession. ”

“ Your presence here this day, stamps with your approval the general principle which is involved in our society, and shews that at any rate, the founders of this institution did not make a wrong estimate of the desire, which exists amongst provincial medical practitioners, to advance medical science, and to promote among themselves that harmony and social feeling, which ought ever to characterise a liberal profession. ”

“ It is not every man who would make a brave soldier, or who could become an eloquent advocate; and the natural fitness of an individual for his calling should not be overlooked; yet the public, and sometimes the profession, appear to suppose that all that is necessary to qualify an individual to become a doctor in medicine, is a given amount of medical knowledge, and whoever brings this requisition, even if he have no other, is initiated. ”

“ Diseases are often stubborn or incurable, and effectually baffle the most skilful practitioner. In most cases, however, diseases are under the control of medical skill; and the high satisfaction which a benevolent physician feels, in relieving the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, may serve as a recompense for the many adverse circumstances which attend the profession. ”

“ In a discussion of professional service, however brief, no thoughtful medical man could forbear some comment on the present general status of clinical medicine and its developments within the last few years. ”

“ While the practice of medicine is so vast and extensive a field, that it has been found necessary to subdivide it amongst physicians, surgeons, accoucheurs, apothecaries, oculists, aurists, dentists, men for the gout and men for the gravel, one for the belly and another for the brain, these reformers seem to regard medical knowledge and medical practice as in a nutshell,—as already perfect and complete. ”

“ To her, chiefly, I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme goal of medicine, its foundation and its crown. ”

“ ADVANTAGES OF SPECIALTIES.
By thorough organization and a perfect system of subdividing the practice of medicine and surgery in this institution, every invalid consulting us is treated by a specialist—one who devotes his undivided attention to the particular class of diseases to which his or her case belongs. The advantage of this arrangement must be obvious. Medical science offers a vast field for investigation, and no physician can, within the limit of a single life-time, achieve the highest degree of success in the treatment of every malady incident to humanity. ”

“ The physician, whether as a specialist or a general practitioner, by years of study, experience and ability, becomes an authority, and the record of his experience and his dissertations fill the pages of the medical journals, and his name and fame exist in records more enduring than brass. ”

“ General practitioners shall mainly provide such services as diagnosis, treatment, referral, prevention, healthcare and rehabilitation of common diseases and frequently-occurring diseases, chronic diseases management, and health management. ”

“ The practice of medicine is every year becoming [pg 293] more successful. New and improved methods of treating disease are being discovered and developed, and the conscientious physician will avail himself of all the means, by a knowledge of which he may benefit his fellow-men. ”

“ Surgery calls for different powers and qualifications rarely uniting in one man. Are these then all to be blended with the apothecary, the botanist, and chymist, which ought to be, and are each of them separate and distinct in their very nature? Whilst we labour amidst such a variety of pursuits, all improvement must be at a stand. Whereas, let each cultivate his respective branch apart, the physician, surgeon, apothecary &c. the knowledge of medicine will be then daily improved, and it may be practiced with greater accuracy and skill as well as a less expence. ”

“ Physicians are only now beginning to realize that, in all phases of preventive medicine, their strongest, most necessary, and, indeed, essential ally, is the public, and the needed stimulus to a better medical per [Pg 42] formance is an intelligent knowledge on the part of the people as to what should be done. ”

“ None of the learned professions have advanced during the last thirty years so much as the medical. Medicine has become a new science since it has taken hold of the sanitary improvement of our towns and dwellings. ”

“ The physician has an office of great responsibility thrust upon him; into his hands we blindly confide the lives of relations and friends, hoping and expecting that his medical knowledge, his experience and skill, may save the existence of some one dear to us. ”

“ Yet we regard clinical medicine as illustrating art, and didactic medicine as representing science. What figure, think you, would the hospital professor make who should come before you with a patient, and be unable to determine with what disease the person was suffering, the organs affected by it, the nature of their functional disturbance, why some functions rather than others were disordered, how these various elements affect the issue of the attack, what that issue will probably be, and finally, what means should be taken to render it favorable? ”

“ The whole town is friendly to a physician. வைத்தியத்தில் இரண வைத்தியமும், வயதில் எவ்வனமும் நல்லது. As regards medical science, surgery—in regard to age, youth are preferable. வைத்தியனே உன்னையே குணமாக்கு. Physician, heal thyself. வைத்தியம் செய்தவன் எல்லாம் வைத்தியன். Every medical practitioner is a physician. வைத்தியம் கொஞ்சமாகிலும் தெரியாத பேர்கள் இல்லை. There is none that does not know, at least, a little of medicine. வைத்தியன் மருந்திலும் கைமருந்தே நலம். Domestic medicine is preferable to that of a physician. வைத்தியன் பெரிதோ மருந்து பெரிதோ? Which is greater, a physician or his medicine? ”

“ Medical Science is one whole, of which all the branches I have enumerated are the several parts. They may be considered as the links of a chain that have a mutual connection with one another. Anatomy, Materia Medica, Botany, Chymistry, and the Institutions, are only the ladder by which we are to mount up to practice. A general knowledge, at least, in each one of them, is useful to both Physician and Surgeon; particularly to the former, who in proportion as he is more intimately acquainted with them all, will become more skillful in the healing science. ”

“ It is a subject not unbecoming the highest attainments, to increase the stock of medical knowledge in that branch of our art. So important, indeed, to society, is the successful treatment of infantile diseases, that happy shall I be, if any effort of mine shall awaken attention to this hitherto neglected department of medicine. ”

“ In the more dangerous, obscure, or complicated forms of chronic diseases, the correct diagnosis and successful treatment of which tax all the skill possessed by the experienced specialist, the invalid will not be misled into the dangerous policy of relying upon his own judgment and treatment, but will be counseled not to postpone until too late, the employment of a skillful physician. ”

“ The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me. ”

“ A Physician will reside in the house, and one or more Physicians, of established character and experience, will attend regularly, and afford medical aid in all cases where the general health, or the particular cause of the patient's insanity, may require it. ”

“ Definition, Exceptions.—Any person is deemed practising medicine, surgery, or obstetrics, or to be a physician, who publicly professes to be a physician, surgeon, or obstetrician, and assumes the duties, or who makes a practice of prescribing, or prescribing and furnishing medicine for the sick, or who publicly professes to cure or heal by any means whatsoever ”

“ It involves a continuance of the mischievous ideal of medical practice of the past, a conception still held by a large portion of the public to its own detriment, that a hasty inquiry, a perfunctory examination, and a bottle of medicine, represent the best that scientific medicine can offer a patient. ”

“ The endeavors of the early physicians to contribute a share to the advancement of medical science are proofs of a thoughtful cultivation of it, and of a laudable desire to render the experience acquired available to others. ”

“ In schools, hospitals, factories, courts, and in the home visiting carried out in connection with them, one can discern the two great branches of work which in the medical sphere we call diagnosis and treatment. ”

“ Physicians, Surgeons, Nurses, and Druggists.—These persons must have sufficient knowledge and skill, and must keep up with the progress of medical science; they must not deny their services or delay to come when there is urgent need; they must give a case diligence proportionate to its seriousness; they must consult in case of doubt, follow the safer opinions, and use the more likely remedies. ”

“ When the examination in these subjects has been satisfactorily negotiated, she passes on to medical work proper, the study of disease and the result of accident in the living person—in other words, she walks the wards of the hospital and undertakes duties as clerk to physicians and dresser to surgeons, from whom she receives instruction in medicine, surgery, and pathology. Special branches are also studied, such as midwifery, women's diseases, and affections of the throat, ear, eye, and skin. The treatment of minor accidents also receives special attention. ”

“ And yet further, how can you be either physicians or surgeons, how can you venture on the responsibility of practitioners charged with the safety of your patients' lives, if you neglect to bring your imperfect knowledge to the test of actual inspection in the dead-house, and thus learn to trace from their beginning to their end the different injuries you may be called upon to remedy, or the various diseases you may have to combat. ”