Hints respecting the improvement of the literary & scientific education of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / by a graduate of King's College, Aberdeen.

Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints respecting the improvement of the literary & scientific education of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh : humbly submitted to the consideration of the patrons and professors of that institution / by a graduate of King's College, Aberdeen. 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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    portion, of the.diseases which are .regarded >hs*strictly chirurgical, but also tiiati there are-lew ..diseases which come under die care of; thevPhysiciau, in, which-morbid affections, requiring the manual: aid or practical; skill of the Surgeon, do not;frequently occur.” “ The importance therefore to Society* of every student of medicine being obliged; to obtain, not only a general, but a minute, knowledge of Physic, and. Surgery, must appear obvious when we reflect how very small a proportion of those who are educated for the medical profession find it possible, in after-life, to devote their attention exclusively to one of these branches, and . to forego the advantages which they reap from the prac- tice of the other. It is in great cities only, that the distincdon in die exercise of the medical profession, between Physician and Surgeon, has been, or can be, observed : and even in those cities- where this distinc- tion has prevailed in the highest degree, how small a .portion of the community, it may be asked, has enjoyed the advantages supposed to be derived from this divi- sion of the healing art ? The rich, it is true, may in all cases of danger, whether real or imaginary, add the at- tendance of the physician or. surgeon to that of their ordinary medical guide, the apothecary: but the. mid- dling classes and the poor, who form die greatest body in every community, must either be contented to live and to die without the advice or assistance of those who practice .physic and surgery as■ distinct.professions, or betake themselves to some of the asylums or hospitals that are maintained at the public expence. A physician in a large city ought to be .regarded as a practitioner, to