An address on the bonds of professional union : delivered before the Medical Association of Adams, Brown, and Clermont Counties, O., at Batavia, October 30, 1847 / by John P. Harrison.

  • Harrison, John P. (John Pollard), 1796-1849.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address on the bonds of professional union : delivered before the Medical Association of Adams, Brown, and Clermont Counties, O., at Batavia, October 30, 1847 / by John P. Harrison. 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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    lies of life, of disease, and of death. To him it belongs to penetrate the causes of the numerous maladies which afflict our race ; to unravel the modes in which these causes act in dis- turbing the manifestations of life ; to trace the connection, and reciprocal dependence of one morbid action upon another, and lo explore with ceaseless search all nature, through her animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, for substances which shall exercise curative powers over the multiplied diseases which he is called to treat. Standing in these special and most responsible relations to society, it behooves him most assiduously to make suitable prepa- ration for the discharge of the high and sacred duties appertain- ing to his office. To effect the great ends, and to fulfil the exalted duties which await his course of action, there are certain relations which he sustains to his profession which must be main- tained with an honorable consistency in his daily deportment. No incertitude, no ambiguity, no fluctuation of intention and conduct, should be exhibited by the medical practitioner in the maintenance of the great and important relations which he sus- tains towards his profession. These relations arise from the science and art of medicine, from the position the physician occupies in reference to his professional brethren, and from the final purpose of the institution of medicine as a humane pursuit. The bonds which unite the medical profession are those:— 1st, which pertain to the science and art of healing ; 2d, those which spring from the obligations we owe each other; and 3d, those which are derived from the essential objects of professional action. The science of medicine, as made up of its elementary and practical departments of inquiry, possesses unity in four aspects of consideration :—First, unity of subject matter; second, unity of modes of investigation ; third, unity of spirit prompting to investigation ; and fourth, unity of facts and doctrines. The art of healing is but the practical direction, and individual application of the truths of the science, and sustains such con- nection with the science as to be dependent upon every discovery