Growth of Strange Views among Surgeons.
A change in the views of English medical men is perceptible on the question of the propriety of a surgeon taking out a Patent for an instrument he has invented. Although we have always felt it the duty of a physician who subscribed to a fixed code of ethics to abide by its regulations, and therefore have always opposed, on technical grounds, the taking Letters Patent on improvements in surgical appliances, we freely grant that there is no à priori immorality in the act.... If we read Dr. Chapman’s letter to the British Medical Journal, we find that he there says: “I have been informed that soon after Dr. Richardson invented his ether-spray instrument, Her Majesty’s physician, Dr. Jenner, said, if he were Dr. Richardson, he would patent the instrument.” And further on we read, “Before I patented the spine bags, I consulted the President of the College of Physicians, Sir Thomas Watson, and the head of the Privy Council, Mr. Simon; and both these gentlemen expressed the opinion that I was justified in doing so.” Such quotations, in our humble opinion, show that Dr. Chapman is, in all probability, right, and the majority of the profession wrong, in objecting to his patenting an instrument which is by no means mysterious or secret. We shall not be sorry to see this frank admission gain ground with the profession in this country, and the prohibition of patenting instruments reconsidered.—Medical and Surgical Reporter.