Long ago physicians were respected members of society. Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and did quite a few phlebotomies on George Washington, possibly not too helpful. The physicians were knowledgeable but had few effective remedies and often
did little good. Over quite a few years physicians became considerably more effective. It appears that the respect physicians are able to generate is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of
their treatments. Almost all adverse outcomes can be blamed on the present day physician. I suspect that “malpractice" was not in the vocabulary before the last 100 years.
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