Physician and patient

Baker & Scribner’s Valuable Publications.
PHYSICIAN AND PATIENT; OR, A PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE MUTUAL DUTIES, RELATIONS AND INTERESTS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND THE COMMUNITY.
BY WORTHINGTON HOOKER, M.D.
I here present thee with a hive of bees, laden some with wax, and some with honey. Fear not to approach. There are no wasps, there are no hornets here. If some wanton bee should chance to buzz about thine ears, stand thy ground and hold thy hands; there’s none will sting if thou strike not first. If any do, she hath honey in her bag will cure thee too. Quarles.
NEW YORK: BAKER AND SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET AND 36 PARK ROW. 1849.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1849, by BAKER AND SCRIBNER, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
Printed by C. W. BENEDICT, 201 William street.
A few words may be proper in explanation of the objects for which this book was written.
One of the objects at which I aim is to expose to the public the fallacy of those sources of evidence, upon which they rely in estimating the comparative merits of physicians, and to show them what tests they have at command, which will not prove fallacious. The proper use of these tests would save the public from mistaking, as they now often do, the plausible pretensions of the superficial practitioner, and the charlatan, for the evidences of real skill and wisdom.
Another object will be to present the claims of the medical profession to the respect and the confidence of the community. As it now is, the profession stands in a somewhat false position before the public. The grounds upon which we ask their regard and trust are not generally understood. The confidence which is reposed in us is not as intelligent as it should be. It is unsettled and capricious. It is overweening at one time, and it is entirely withheld at another, and for the most frivolous reasons. The inconsistencies of even the well informed on this subject are surprising. Many, who on some occasions confide implicitly in nothing but educated science, are found at other times submitting themselves and their families to the haphazard administrations of empiricism.