A full report of the jury cause, Syme v. Lizars, on Thursday, March 12, 1840 / taken in shorthand by Simon Macgregor.

Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A full report of the jury cause, Syme v. Lizars, on Thursday, March 12, 1840 / taken in shorthand by Simon Macgregor. 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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    against this evil that my client is warning all clinical men, and was he not justified in so doing? My learned friend, the Dean of Faculty, says, that his client is only asking for an apology—he does not want money. What does he want, then, by bringing an action here? He wishes public vindication and not money ! This is an odd way of asking it. I publish a paper offensive to a friend, and he brings an action against me for damages, hut does not wish money not he ! He wants that reputation, which is too high to be affected where he is known, to be publicly vindicated—that, he says, is his ob- ject. Instead of coming to me, or sending a friend, (I do not mean a pis- tol affair,) he fires off a summons against me, the very next day after the publication of my volume. “ I have caught,” says he, “my rival Pro- fessor now—I have the rival author in my power—1 will show him what I will do. My character stands high, and as it does not require vindication in the city of Edinburgh, or among medical men, to whom the treatise is addressed, I will show my amiable spirit—I will show that there is no- thing of the spirit that actuated him in my composition—I will show that I am all mildness and gentleness—that there is none of the spirit of the serpent in me, and therefore 1 at once fire off an action of damages, concluding for the small sum of L. 1000 ! 1 bottle every thing up till I come to the trial, and, in the mild language of the Dean of Faculty, I accuse the de- fender of gross vulgarity, of being devoid of the feelings of a gentleman, and after all that, as I do not want money, when Isay be is destitute of the feelings of a gentleman, I tell him that if he will rise up and reply, ‘ I thank you, sir, for your great lenity and kindness, I beg your pardon,’ I will then let him off—I want no damages 1” Gentlemen, I cannot justify in law that part of my statement, with re- spect to the hemorrhage, which I hold to be correct, having admitted that I was misinformed as to this groping in the hay-rick—I cannot in this court be allowed in law to justify the one half of my statement, while I admit that, in point of fact, I am not in a condition to justify the whole. The pursuer, on the other hand, might have brought evidence, if he could, that there was no hemorrhage, no fainting in the case of his namesake, Mr Syme ; but I cannot do so. He has brought no such evidence ; and yet he says, I will vindicate my character by bringing this action of da- mages, or I will have a public apology, because you, by your statement, have disturbed the peace of thousands; and the world at large, who do not read medical books, in general, is yet, it seems, anxiously waiting the result of the proceedings of this day, in the great cause of Sym v. La- zars, or Syme v. Lizars ! Gentlemen, this issue relates to a horrid subject, a disgusting subject, and one which should never have been brought under discussion here. This is a very contemptible case : but I say the institution of it is trace- able—(and I shall read you a passage of rather an amusing kind, consider- ing where it comes from, explanatory of this)—1 say it is traceable to a principle of medical human nature—I say medical human nature. They c