CHAPTER XII.

INTERCOURSE OF PHYSICIANS, 258

Erroneous views in regard to consultations. “Jury of doctors.” Dictation not consultation. Giving opinions in relation to the past treatment. Offices of the consulting, and of the attending physician defined. Freedom in consultation necessary. Between enemies, useless. Should be alone in consultation. Intrigues of dishonorable practitioners. Supposed want of agreement—favoring the impression for base purposes. Attributing changes, good or bad, to some remedy for selfish ends. Failing to defend a medical brother when circumstances fairly demand it. Making comparisons between cases. Undue attentions to the patients of others. Conduct of some when called to see the patient of another in case of unnecessary alarm. Physicians supposed to be too much attached to etiquette. Not so usually. Differences and quarrels of physicians—circumstances giving rise to them. Facility with which deception is practised in medicine. Peculiar relation of the physician to his employers. Cliques. Sectarian and other associations. Avoiding quarrels. Relations of elder physicians to their brethren.