The Profits of this little work, if any, will be given to some

Medical Charity.

OXFORD:

PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.

OR, A CODE OF

INSTITUTES AND PRECEPTS,

ADAPTED TO THE

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

OF

PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.

BY THE LATE

THOMAS PERCIVAL, M.D., F.R.S.

THIRD EDITION.

OXFORD:

JOHN HENRY PARKER.

LONDON: JOHN CHURCHILL, PRINCES STREET, SOHO.

M DCCC XLIX.

ΤΟ

STANLEY PERCIVAL, Esq.,

OF BRIDGEFOOT, MIDDLESEX,

ONLY SURVIVING SON

OF DR. PERCIVAL,

THIS NEW EDITION

OF HIS FATHER'S LAST AND

MOST VALUABLE WORK

IS RESPECTFULLY OFFERED.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

As the late Dr. Percival's Code of Medical Ethics is commonly quoted as a work of authority, not only in this country, but also in Americaa, and as the original edition has now become somewhat scarce, it was thought that it might be usefully republished.

The present edition is reprinted from that published by Dr. Percival himself, (8vo. Manchester,

In the Note prefixed by Dr. Hays to the "Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association," he writes as follows:-"On examining a great number of Codes of Ethics adopted by different societies in the United States, it was found that they were all based on that by Dr. Percival, and that the phrases of this writer were preserved to a considerable extent in all of them. Believing that language so often examined and adopted, must possess the greatest of merits for such a document as the present, clearness and precision, and having no ambition for the honors of authorship, the Committee which prepared this Code have followed a similar course, and have carefully preserved the words of Percival, whenever they convey the precepts it is wished to inculcate."

b A new edition was published in 1827, but the Editor's notes are of such a nature as to render the book absolutely mischievous.

1803,) corrected occasionally by his unfinished and unpublished edition, and also by the posthumous reprint contained in vol. ii. of his collected "Works." (4 vols. 8vo. Bath, 1807.) The references have been verified, and in several instances the quotations have been corrected, but no other alteration has been made in the text of the work; as, even when the statements contain

Of this rare volume the only copy that the Editor has seen or heard of is in the library of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and was given by Dr. Percival himself. In the beginning there is the following Note in his own handwriting:-"The completion of the Medical Jurisprudence has been long suspended; and it is uncertain when the undertaking will be resumed. A title page; an introduction; a fifth and sixth section; and an appendix, containing Notes and Illustrations, are wanting to finish this little work.

Manchester, March 17, 1794."

It ends abruptly on p. 96, which terminates chap. iv. The text for the most part agrees with that which was afterwards published, except that this latter contains about twenty paragraphs that are not to be found in the original sketch, and that great part of what forms Note XIV. in the present edition is there found in the text. At the end of the treatise there is the following Note, also in Dr. Percival's own hand-writing:-"Two sections wanting. Sect. V. On the Powers, Privileges, Honours, and Emoluments of the Faculty. Sect. VI. On the Moral, Religious, and Political Character of Physicians."