The Journal of the American Medical Association (June 7, 1913) gave a list of post-mortem examinations where the diagnosis made by men with a reputation for fair work had been correct in only the following ratios:
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis | |
| correct. | incorrect. | |
| Per cent. | Per cent. | |
| Diabetes Mellitus | 95 | 5 |
| Typhoid Fever | 92 | 8 |
| Aortic Regurgitation | 84 | 16 |
| Cancer of Colon | 74 | 26 |
| Lobar Pneumonia | 74 | 26 |
| Chronic Glomerular Nephritis | 74 | 26 |
| Cerebral Tumor | 72.8 | 27.2 |
| Tuberculous Meningitis | 72 | 28 |
| Gastric Cancer | 72 | 28 |
| Mitral Stenosis | 69 | 31 |
| Brain Hemorrhage | 67 | 33 |
| Septic Meningitis | 64 | 36 |
| Aortic Stenosis | 61 | 39 |
| Phthisis, Active | 59 | 41 |
| Miliary Tuberculosis | 52 | 48 |
| Chronic Interstitial Nephritis | 50 | 50 |
| Thoracic Aneurism | 50 | 50 |
| Hepatic Cirrhosis | 39 | 61 |
| Acute Endocarditis | 39 | 61 |
| Peptic Ulcer | 36 | 64 |
| Suppurative Nephritis | 35 | 65 |
| Renal Tuberculosis | 33.3 | 66.7 |
| Bronchopneumonia | 33 | 66 |
| Vertebral Tuberculosis | 23 | 77 |
| Chronic Myocarditis | 22 | 78 |
| Hepatic Abscess | 20 | 80 |
| Acute Pericarditis | 20 | 80 |
| Acute Nephritis | 16 | 84 |
Pneumonia is a very common disease, extremely dangerous, and by skilful treatment it is very often cured, yet of these 100 cases 66 were not diagnosed. I recently saw a severe case of double pneumonia which a physician was treating as "indigestion," and he was giving pepsin tablets for the supposed indigestion. There is such a thing as extraordinary scientific precision in medical work, but it is rare; the ordinary physician treats symptoms without knowing the cause of the symptoms; that is, the symptom-treater is a quack, and if euthanasia were legalized thousands of such quacks would be permitted to murder with an overdose of morphine any querulous old man or woman who might fall into their hands. Osteopaths and chiropractors are masseurs, and they know very little of massage, but they are licensed by legislatures to practise medicine, and some of them even try obstetrical malpractice. They, too, would be licensed to inflict euthanasia. Pure homeopathy is little more than a name at present; it is faith-healing without prayer. It attenuates its drugs 100 per cent. for thirty repetitions, to a degree expressible by one with sixty ciphers. Consequently it gives sugar of milk or alcohol in minute quantities plus a label, and one cannot make much of an impression on any disease with a label. Such practitioners also would come under the euthanasia act.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cardinal John de Lugo. Disputationes Scholasticae et Morales, vol. vi; De Justitia et Jure, disputatio x.
St. Augustine. I Contra Petilianum, cap. 24; Ad Marcellianum Comitem, cap. 21; De Civitate Dei, cap. 17 to 28.
Aristotle. III Ethicorum, cap. 7, and lib. v, cap. ii. Plato. Phaedo.
Cicero. Quaestiones Tusculanae. I, lib. v; De Somno Scipionis.
Lessius. De Justitia et Jure, lib. ii, c. 9, dub. 6, 7.
Molina. De Justitia et Jure, vol. i, tr. 2, disp. 119; vol. iv, tr. 3, disp. 1 and 9.
St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, 2, 2, q. 64, a. 5, 7.
St. Alphonsus Liguori. Theologia Moralis, vol. iv, tr. 4. See this book for opposed opinions and a bibliography.
Costa-Rossetti. Philosophia Moralis, thesis 120.
Ferretti. Philosophia Moralis, theses xci, xciv.
Macksey. De Ethica Naturali, theses xxxiv et seq.
[CHAPTER II]
General Principles Concerning Mutilation
The members of the human body may be injured (1) by a blow, which without bloodshed causes pain or a bruise; (2) by a wound, which breaks the continuity of the tissues; (3) by mutilation, which, without killing, removes some member requisite for the integrity of the body. The term Mutilation as applied to the human body has various meanings. In the civil law mutilation of a person is called Mayhem, an old form of the word Maim, and is defined by Blackstone[5] as "such hurt of any part of a man's body as renders him less able in fighting to defend himself or annoy his adversary." By statute in the United States and Great Britain the scope of the offence has been so extended as to include injuries to a person which merely disfigure or disable. Mutilation in the civil law now implies the taking away of some part of a legal instrument, as a will, contract, or the like, by any one who has no right to make this alteration.