MISTAKES OF SURGERY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 88, 10 January 1923, Page 4

MISTAKES OF SURGERY

REPLY TO DR. BURROWS’S BOOK

DEFENCE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION

BY TKLRGHAPII— SPECIAL COBRESPONDENT, Christchurch, January 9.

Regarding the cabled reviews of Dr. Harold Burrows’s sensational book, “Mistakes and Accidents of Surgery,” a Christchurch specialist to-day gave his opinion thus: “It seems to me, and tne opinion has been expressed to mo by professional laymen, that the publication of the book will serve no good purpose whatever. I don’t know if Dr. Burrows is, or has been, an outstanding man in his profession. If ho has been an outstanding figure, and has retired, ho is now looking for a little cheap notoriety. Tho publication of such a work tends to undermine the confidence of tho public in its medical men. There is a certain typo of man who thinks ho is doing a public service by being frank, but there is frankness and frankness. One might imagine from such a book that medical men were not straightforward. Of course, there are blackguards in tho profession, as there are in any other, but the medical profession as a whole morally is above reproach. As for tho man who is reported to have removed the wrong log, he should either have shot himself or have been hanged.”