Lectures on inflammation : exhibiting a view of the general doctrines, pathological and practical, of medical surgery / by John Thomson.

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on inflammation : exhibiting a view of the general doctrines, pathological and practical, of medical surgery / by John Thomson. 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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    of the medical profession, between physician and surgeon, either has been, or ever can be, observed : and even in those cities where this dictinction has prevailed in the highest de- gree, how small a portion of the community, it may be ask- ed, have enjoyed the advantages supposed to be derived from this division of the healing art ? The rich, it is true, may, in all cases of danger, whether real or imaginary, add the attendance of the physician or surgeon to that of their ordinary medical guide, the apothecary : but the poor, who form the greatest body in every community, must either be contented to live and to die without the advice or assistance of those who practise physic and surgery as distinct profes- sions, or betake themselves to some of the asylums or hos- pitals that are maintained at the public expense. A physi- cian in a large city ought to be regarded as a practitioner to whom recourse is to be had in cases of difficulty and dan- ger : but the proper education of this class of practitioners, and the necessity which exists for their having enjoyed op- portunities of extensive practice, as well as having gone through a course of academical study in order to qualify them properly for the duties of consultation, are points which do not seem to have been hitherto fully investigated by the medical profession, nor rightly understood by the public. A consulting practitioner without experience is certainly an incongruous, and may become a dangerous cha- racter in society. In small towns, on the contrary, and particularly in coun- try villages, subdivision of labour in the medical profession is totally inadmissible. In these situations, the customs, con- venience, and necessities of their patients do not admit of any distinctions among medical practitioners, which are not im- mediately derived from a real or fancied superiority of pro- fessional skill. But how extensive the practical information required to qualify the village or country practitioner for the duties which he has to perform, will be obvious, when we re- flect that he must undertake the cure of all the accidents and diseases to which men, women, and children are liable, in the district in which he is to practise. It is this circum- stance which renders it so desirable for the public that every young medical practitioner, in the commencement of his prac- tice, were placed for a time under the superintendence and direction of men older and more experienced than himself. Without the advantages to be derived from this mode of