New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-17
Medical Ethics.

|
cal departm ent of the University of the City
OF New York was formally opened last eve.
ming. The lecture room was filed with stu.
dents and their friends. Soon after SP. M.
| the faculty entered, led by Chancellor
Crosby, and took their seats. Among the
prominent persons present were Martvn
Paine, M. D., LII, D.; Alfred C. Post, M, D..
LII. D., president Of the faculty; Professors orr,
Budd, Draper, LOOMS, Darling, Thomson
Arnold and Darby, and Charles Inslee Par
| dee, dean of the faculty. After PRAYER and
| reading Of the Scriptures by the Rev. DR..
Taylor, President Post delivered an address
of welcome that was frequently app.auded.
Chancellor Crosby then delivered the intro
duotory address.
After deprecating, in humorous manner,
the faculty's invitation to him to address
the students of medicine, and depicting his
| difficulty IN the choice of theme, the
speaker announced his subject as 1.-THE
Ethics of Medical Men" The speaker
| showed that the members of the medical
profession were great men, and men of
power, and their ethics, therefore, were of
| Importance to the world, The medical
| men penetrates into the honIe assumes high
| control there, and both the body and the
mind of the patient must yield to his guild.
dance. He sends US to different quarters of
the globe; one to Florida, another TO Eu.
| rope, another to India. He controls the eat
ing, drinking and sleeping 1t is therefore
| no small matter how persons with such
relations to us should behave themselves.
Correct habits and manners do not grow of
themselves. There must be plenty Of trim
ming and pruning, and even uprOoting of
the bad and transplanting of the good.
There are many things that, independent of
circumstances, must tend to round the life.
Still, OF all the professions and callings,
none has more OF the high tone and the
moral basis than the medical profession.
To none does the credit of the advance of
social comfort and well being of mankind
belong more than to the medical fraternity.
Let me speak, DR.. Crosby said, of some of
the errors that may be corrected, and which,
If not uproOted, may greatly injure the
practitioners chances of future success.
First, personal uncleanlinsss. In the
sickroOm everything should be so presented
as to cheer the invalid. Each surrounding
should be neat and clean. How can this be
SO II the breath OF the physician is stained
with tobacco, or if his shirt bosom is soiled
with the spattering of eggs, or if he touches
the person OF his patient with soiled hands!
The second is brusqueness-entering the
sickro0m like a tornado, ,and utteriDg a
harsh, discordant "How are your" The
physician should have both the strength of
-Esculapius and the polish OF Apollo. Too
often young men are apt to think that bv
initiating the peculiarities and faults of the
great they mako themselves great also.
The celebrated surgeon, John Aberpetby
was rude, but his brilliant attachments
made the fault tolerable. If a young
man should start to initiate Aber,
nethy. instead of the many virtues conceal.
ing the fault, we should generally find
nothing there but the rudeness. The third
error is gOssiping in the sick room. Ii the
patient is too weak to keep up his end of
the conversation, there is generally a nurse
or mother-in-law who is ready to take his
part. How many have died from the same
disease, and its phases are discussed until
the tevered, wearied patient tosses in his
bed in perfect agony. A great charm is
brevity and directness, whether in the min
ister's sermon or in the DOCTORS visit. Clear.
ness in directing. brevity in speaking of
outside matters, and interest in the symp-
toms OF the case, command the sick mans
respect and confidence should not feel
safe in storm at sea in a skip whose pilot
was willing to gossip with the passe gers.
as chen, with his hand on the wheel, he
gazed intently on the storm.
There is another kind to be avOided-the
solemn practitioner. He enters the sick
chamber like malaria, and departs leaving
behind q grave-like clamminess. Let the
doctor enter the sick.room like the advent of
spripg morning, making his whole path
way bright and cheerful Again, avoid
an assumption of mystery. If your
patient is troubled with fiatulence, don't
put on an owlish look and suggest
possibility of cancer. II Won don't
know what is the matter with the patient
say so, and he will take an interest in fol-
lowing your honest Investigations. Don't
put on the mystifcation of the Sphynx. 1t
has often been q question whether the pa
tient should be informed of the approach of
death. i say yes, certainly, ii that ap-
proach be certain. If you can do no more
for your patient, you are at least bound to
give him as much time as possible to pre-
pare himself for the hereafter. AMONG
doctors there should be no strife. The same
studies should make you band of brothers.
But 1t is notorious tact that it is not 40.
can only allude to the fact; to 90 into il
further would be like interfering in the
quarrel of husband and wife, and to with
stand both sides one would need the thick
ska of the rhinoceros.
1t 10 good, wholesome rule among the
members OF the medical profession to set
their faces against slyertising. MANY a
verdant mind inquiries whether the only
kind of advertising done is that in the
Or upon sign-boardsa How is it
with the doctors that live in snowy pal
aces and drive fourth. hand in the public
streets and parksi Does not this practice
run counter to the spirit of the lawi DR..
Popinjsy can not lisp . syllable of condem-
nation against the most arrant advertising
charlatan. Each 10 degrading his honest
orothers who live modestly, and they should
DO treated - brothers. Another matter Of