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History of medicine Essay
History of medicine Essay
Paper on some aspect of the history of medicine in the western world essays
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In the story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" Sherlock Holmes believed that "doctor's make the greatest criminals." Holmes said "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals, He has nerve and he has knowledge." This is true because doctors are trained to know how the human body works. They know what can kill a person and what can keep them alive. Knowingly, one with this type of knowledge can be very dangerous.
Even though doctors know everything when it comes to medications and what is considered poisonous to the body. Back then, a doctor could possibly have access to poisons that was undetectable in the human body. Certain poisons could not be found in the blood of a corpse even if that was the source of death. For example, in the story Doctor Roylott played his innocence the entire time when the crime was about. He made it seem like he was clueless just like everyone else, because no one
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When committing a crime, a criminal has to pay attention to every single clue that he or she could possibly leave behind. For example, doctors around Sherlock Holmes' time period did not sterilize their hands or instruments, a method of disinfection used today, yet people had no choice but to trust the doctors because that was their only source of the best treatment they could get. Doctors were also socially accepted as the people who help and would almost certainly never be questioned about a crime.
Sherlock Holmes conclusion that doctors were the greatest criminals was pretty accurate. Doctor Roylott made this statement verifiable by his sneaky actions thinking that his occupation could hide the fact that he used it for murder. With doctors knowing that they are some of the most trusted people in the world, it is the perfect disguise for criminal acts. It is clearly evident that they would make the greatest
Most medical experts often had to supplement their findings with more conventional detective work. Rob Rapley recounts the famous cases of the day including the factory workers who painted glow in the dark watch dials with radium paint. Women who worked in these factories were unknowingly being poisoned as they put their brushes in their mouths to touch up the point. Since women were dying years after having access to the paint, it was hard to tell whether or not they died from the paint at work or from another cause. It wasn’t until Gettler ran tests on a woman’s bones five years after her death and found radium still remaining in her bones. Also, a man named Mike Malloy miraculously survived tragic situations such as being run over by a taxi and being fed rotten food before finally dying from poisonous gas. The cause of his death, however, was not spontaneous and was a result of money hunger than those who insured him shared. This models that murderers used poison to commit crimes in search of money. One pair of murderers, exculpated by Gettler’s evidence in 1924, was finally caught in 1936, when they killed again using the same poison.
In contrast, Joseph Collins takes a different view in his presentation. He chooses a negative answer to the question “Should doctors tell patients the truth”. He thinks that telling the whole truth is often perpetrating a cruelty of which many are incapable (605). He divides patients in
Erick Larson wrote in Devil in the White City, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing – I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered in the world, and he has been with me since” (Troy, Taylor). This statement was a quoted confession from Dr. H. H. Holmes himself in 1896. Holmes was the first major serial killer in America, even though he came after many others in his time. Thomas Neil Cream, the Austin Axe Murderer, the Bloody Benders, and Jack the Ripper came before him. His name was originally Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born on May 16th, 1860 in Gilman, New Hampshire. He was raised by his mother and father, who was a wealthy and respected citizen for 25 years. As a boy, Mudgett was always in trouble and was well known in his community for his rather sociopathic behavior. He would show cruelty to both animals and other children. The only thing keeping hope to society was the fact that he was an excellent student. He later changed his last name to Holmes in order to pursue both his medical and criminal careers. He had many other aliases in which he would hide under and try to derail the cops from finding him (Juan, Blanco). Holmes was medically trained to be a doctor and received his degree from the University of Michigan. He was not just into insurance fraud scams. His evil doings included forgery, claiming to find the cure for alcoholism, real estate scams, and pretending to have a machine that turned natural gas into water. He was quite the ladies man, had many wives, whom often had become his victims. Many of his medical partners became subject to him, also. He once even had three wiv...
During the late nineteenth century, police often thought of those within the upper society of a city as beyond suspicion. “[Holmes] walked with confidence and dressed well, conjuring the impression of wealth and achievement” (Larson 35). By creating the illusion of being in the upper class, Holmes was able to avoid questioning gazes that were sent his way. Along with that, Holmes was careful and clever in the way he built his “murder castle.” The strategy he employed in building allowed very few to know what exactly was being built. “He did not consult an architect… To hire an architect would have meant revealing the true character of the structure…” (Larson 66). “As workers came to him for their wages, he berated them for doing shoddy work and refused to pay them… The high rate of turnover had the corollary benefit of keeping to a minimum the number of individuals who understood the building’s secrets” (67). The combination of not hiring an architect and hiring new workers constantly, allowed Holmes to be in complete control of his building site. With only himself and his accomplices knowing the details of the mansion, no worker gained enough suspicion to go to the police, which allowed Holmes to avoid
Bram Stoker's Dracula deals with the role and duty of the doctor, and with the relationship between them and their patient extensively. Stoker, from a medical family himself (his brothers were doctors), creates a very stereotypical male doctor/female patient scenario with Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing aiding Lucy Westerna and Mina Harper. Of the two physicians however, Seward comes to illustrate the failings of Victorian English society, and is also romantically involved with one of the patients (Lucy Westerna) which confuses and muddles the normal duties one would expect from a doctor to their patient. From these distractions and lack of belief in the supernatural - modern Victorian society dismissed the supernatural - Dr. Van Helsing stands at the forefront of our attention in the battle against Dracula, and demonstrates his duties admirably for all to see.
Holmes and Holmes developed this typology based on various characteristics of the crime scenes and the victims themselves of 110 interviews of selected offenders and serial murders (Canter & Wentink, 2004). David Canter and Natalia Wentink conducted an empirical test of this typology and developed several criticisms to their work. Their empirical test concluded that the features described for each category tend to co-occur within each other. For example, the characteristics of a lust killer include a controlled crime scene, evidence of torture, the body being moved, a specific type of victim, no weapon left at the crime scene, and rape; all of these features are also included for the thrill killer. This makes it difficult to categorize these
Roylott stood in his room. Holmes and Watsons’ plan was to stay in Julia’s room for the night to further investigate the occurrences in the room. They were not responsible for the impended danger that took place. Holmes was startled from the sound of the object that moved down the rope, thus, he protected himself by making the snake slither in the opposite direction of himself. If Dr. Roylott was out of bed when the snake was put in the ventilator, Holmes would have thought he was smart enough to understand not to stand on the chair while waiting for the snake. Holmes defended himself from the snake, as it was poisonous. Although this claim supported the innocence of Holmes, the following claim aids the fact that Sherlock was still not to be blamed at fault for Dr. Roylott’s death, but with greater factual
In the short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Sherlock Holmes comes to the conclusion that "doctors make the greatest criminals". Doctors go through years of studying the human body and know how it works. Doctors know what can harm the human body and what human bodies can withstand. They also know what it would take to put an end to someone's existence. Knowledge, an evil mind and the expertise to destroy evidence, are all that is required to be a proficient criminal. Doctors have several clear advantages to be exceptional criminals.
doctor." What this tells us is that Watson is a very smart man and is
In this chapter Dr. Thomas Percival is introduced. Percival first debuted the term “medical ethics.” Percival himself was an advocate of the classical decorum. He believed in the importance of the truth and emphasized sympathy, equality and patience. Chapters six and seven illustrates medical ethics in America. American doctors in this time were either self-taught or apprenticeship-trained. During these chapters the development of proper schools and education were initiated by the American Medical Association. In addition, the first anesthesia was introduced and debates soon began to spark in the world of medicine. The first concerning the unethical practice of inoculation. Then the discussion of abortion and later the use of anesthesia. Yet, in the very last chapter, Jonsen introduces a series of events which radically transformed the field of
In all regards, Sherlock was not able to foretell the snake biting Dr. Roylott. Coincidingly, Sherlock Holmes was brought along in order to help Helen Stoner with the frightening case, not have any part in the demise of Dr. Roylott. Moreover, Sherlock Holmes was more than positive Dr. Roylott murdered Julia by reason of money. Though, Sherlock Holmes did not know how Dr. Roylott passed away. In summation, Sherlock Holmes was not to be blamed for the death of Dr. Roylott, as to the coinciding points that sum up the
As if molded directly from the depths of nightmares, both fascinating and terrifying. Serial killers hide behind bland and normal existences. They are often able to escape being caught for years, decades and sometimes an eternity. These are America’s Serial Killers (America’s Serial Killers). “Even when some of them do get caught, we may not recognize what they are because they don’t [sic] match the distorted image we have of serial killers” (Brown). What is that distorted image? That killers live among everyday life, they are the ones who creep into someone’s life unknowingly to torture and kill them. The serial killers that are in the movies, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, and the evil master mind of SAW, these characters are just that characters. They have been made up as exaggerated fictional characters from the Hollywood imagination.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote both “Charles Augustus Milverton” and “A Scandal in Bohemia” in which he portrayed the infamous Sherlock Holmes as both a criminal and a detective. These dueling roles Holmes plays within the stories is unique for characterization of any character. The introduction of “A Scandal in Bohemia” illustrates Dr. Watson visiting Sherlock Holmes, as a casual friendly encounter, when a client enters with the gravest of problems. The client is a wealthy king, who has recently become engaged to a princess, but has had a previous affair with the beautiful and cunning Irene Adler. Miss Adler is in possession of pictures of the king in a compromising position, and she Miss Adler is threatening to send the scandalous pictures to the king’s perspective in-laws. The king quickly tasks Holmes with finding and destroying the pictures Miss Adler is in possession of, to protect the king and his new fiancée from embarrassment. In order for Holmes to acquire the pictures, he must con Miss Adler into letting him into her home and tricking her into showing in the location of the pictures, making Holmes a criminal in the short story (Doyle 11-25).
Doctors, like every other person, are human beings and thus they can make mistakes just like everyone else. However, when a doctor makes a mistake, it is much more serious than a fast food employee messing up your order. Doctors must follow a set of ethical guidelines in order to minimise the amount of mistakes they make. In a perfect world everyone follows the
Consequently, it can be assumed that doctors might tend to avoid such a confession in order to maintain their image of being a “good doctor” (J.Shahidi). Not being a good doctor may eventually lead to doctor’s loss of business and as a result physicians may tend to hide the truth even if it opposes patient autonomy