ACTIONS AGAINST MEDICAL MEN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 734, 18 December 1869, Page 2

ACTIONS AGAINST MEDICAL MEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING HERALD. Wanganui, Dec. 19, 1869. Sir,—To render a medical man liable for negligence or want of due care or skill, according to legal authority, it is not enough that there has been a less degree of skill than some other medical men might have shown, or a less degree of care than even he himself might have bestowed, nor is it enough that he himself acknowledged some degree of want of care ; there must have been a want of competent and ordinary care and. skill, and to such a degree as to have led to a bad result, Rich v. Pierpont, 3 F. and F. 35. If I hire the labor and services and skill of a surgeon or any other professional' person, he impliedly undertakes for the possession and exercise of ordinary skill and knowledge in the practice of his profession, and is responsible for any injury I may sustain from his neglect to exercise such skill. The employer himself is bound to; exercise ordinary caution and discrimination in the choice and selection of; the party he employs. If he selects a common quack or an unauthorised practitioner, tlxe latter is responsible only for a reasonable and bona fide exertion of his capacity. He is bound to exercise such skill as he actually possesses, and if he has done his best, and failed, he cannot be made responsible for a want of skill, for it was the employers own fault to trust an unlearned and unskilful person known not to be regularly and properly qualified. If the employer "voluntarily employs in one art a man who openly exercises another, his folly," observes Sir William Jones, " has no. claim to indulgence ; and unless the latter makes false prehensions or a special undertaking, no more can be fairly demanded of him than the best of his ability." The case which Sadi relates with elegance and humor, in his Guliston or Rose Garden, is not inapplicable to tho present sub-

ject. A man whohatl a disorder in his eyes called qn a remedy, and 4ieA applied Jo; thema medicine commonly used s for;his patients. The ■man lost his- sight,; and .brought an action for the damages, but the judge said- notion lies, for if-the complainant had not himself been an ass he would never have employed a farrier. And Sadi proceeds to intimate, that if a person will! employ a common matmaker to weave or embroider a fine carpet, he must .impute the bad workmanship to his own folly.—l am, &c, Patrick Keon.