Moral Principles and Medical Practice

Moral Principles and Medical
Practice

Project Gutenberg's Moral Principles and Medical Practice, by Charles
Coppens This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Moral Principles and Medical Practice The Basis of Medical
Jurisprudence
Author: Charles Coppens
Release Date: June 18, 2006 [EBook #18616]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORAL
PRINCIPLES ***

Produced by Geoff Horton, Laura Wisewell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | |
Transcriber's Note | | | | In Lecture I, there are paragraphs numbered 1 to

8 but omitting | | 4. This is as in the original, as is the inconsistent | |
hyphenation of the words "lawgiver" and "twofold". In two | | instances,
errors of punctuation have been corrected, and in one | | case obscured
words have been guessed. Full details can be found | | in the html
version of this ebook. | | |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

MORAL PRINCIPLES AND
MEDICAL PRACTICE,
THE BASIS OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
BY
REV. CHARLES COPPENS, S.J.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the John A. Creighton Medical
College, Omaha, Neb., author of Text-Books on Metaphysics, Ethics,
Oratory, and Rhetoric.
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO: BENZIGER BROTHERS,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See.

TO
MR. JOHN A. CREIGHTON,
THE FOUNDER OF THIS MEDICAL COLLEGE AND OF ST.
JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL, AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF HONOR FOR
HIS ENLIGHTENED PATRONAGE OF LEARNING AND HIS
CHRISTIAN CHARITY TOWARDS HIS FELLOW-MEN, THIS
VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

=Permissu Superiorum.=
The undersigned, Provincial of the Missouri Province of the Society of
Jesus, in virtue of faculties granted to him by Very Rev. L. MARTIN,
General of the same Society, hereby permits the publication of a book
entitled "Moral Principles and Medical Practice," by Rev. CHARLES
COPPENS, S.J., the same having been approved by the censors
appointed by him to revise it.
THOMAS S. FITZGERALD, S.J.
ST. LOUIS, MO., July 2, 1897.
* * * * *
=Imprimatur.=
MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of New York.
NEW YORK, July 20, 1897.

COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS.

PREFACE.
The science of Medicine is progressive; genius irradiates its onward
march. Few other sciences have advanced as rapidly as it has done
within the last half century. Hence it has happened that in many of its
branches text-books have not kept pace with the knowledge of its
leading minds. Such is confessedly the case in the department of
Medical Jurisprudence. This very term, Medical Jurisprudence, as now
used in colleges, is generally acknowledged to be a misnomer. There is
no reason why it should be so used. The leading medical writers and
practitioners are sound at present on the moral principles that ought to
direct the conduct of physicians. It is high time that their principles be
more generally and distinctly inculcated on the younger members, and

especially on the students of their noble profession. To promote this
object is the purpose aimed at by the author. His brief volume is not
intended to be substituted for existing text-books on Medical
Jurisprudence, but to supply some chapters imperatively demanded by
science for the thorough treatment of this important subject.

CONTENTS.
PAGE LECTURE I.--INTRODUCTION--THE FOUNDATION OF
JURISPRUDENCE, 11
" II.--CRANIOTOMY, 37
" III.--ABORTION, 58
" IV.--VIEWS OF SCIENTISTS AND SCIOLISTS, 81
" V.--VENEREAL EXCESSES, 104
" VI.--THE PHYSICIAN'S PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES,
128
" VII.--THE NATURE OF INSANITY, 151
" VIII.--THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF INSANITY, 177
" IX.--HYPNOTISM AND THE BORDER-LAND OF SCIENCE, 197

MORAL PRINCIPLES AND MEDICAL PRACTICE.

LECTURE I.
INTRODUCTORY--THE FOUNDATION OF JURISPRUDENCE.
Gentlemen:--1. When I thoughtfully consider the subject on which I am

to address you in this course of lectures, i.e., Medical Jurisprudence, I
am deeply impressed with the dignity and the importance of the matter.
The study of medicine is one of the noblest pursuits to which human
talent can be devoted. It is as far superior to geology, botany,
entomology, zoölogy, and a score of kindred sciences as its subject, the
body of man, the visible lord of the creation, is superior to the subject
of all other physical sciences, which do so much honor to the power of
the human mind; astronomy, which explores the vast realms of space,
traces the courses and weighs the bulks of its mighty orbs; chemistry,
which analyzes the minutest atoms of matter; physics, which discovers
the properties, and mechanics, which utilizes the powers of an endless
variety of bodies--all these noble sciences together are of less service to
man than that study which directly promotes the welfare of his own
structure, guards his