Talk:Charles Delucena Meigs

Doctors are Gentlemen quote
The infamous Meigs quote "Doctors are gentlemen and gentlemen's hands are clean" (or several other variants) is probably what he's most known for today. But I can't actually find a period source that covers it. This article cites his work "A treatise on acute and chronic diseases of the neck of the uterus." However, I found the full text of that at, and a search for the phrase or components of it returns no results. Can anyone confirm the veracity of this quote from sources at the time? 140.180.253.192 (talk) 18:15, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Some more searching and I've found a reasonably close version of it in "On the nature, signs, and treatment of childbed fevers", 104.


 * The quote is (describing a doctor of his acquaintance who had apparently spread puerpal fever to many of his clients): "He is a gentleman who is scrupulously careful of his personal appearance, of great experience as a practitioner, and well informed as to modern opinions on the contagion of childbed fever. Still, those of you who are contagionists will say that he carried the poison from house to house ; and if so, then you ought to give some rationale of the fact. Did he carry it on his hands ? But a gentleman's hands- are clean." So it seems reasonable to distill that as "Doctors are gentlemen and a gentlemen's hands are clean", but that appears to not actually be the full original quote. 140.180.253.192 (talk) 18:28, 22 July 2013 (UTC)


 * IMO, the article should indicate that the shorter quotation is often attributed to him, and it should follow the short quotation with the full version of the quotation. --Orlady (talk) 18:58, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
 * The impression I get from his words, especially when reading the whole text, is exactly the opposite to what everyone claims he says here: he is not saying he is a gentleman so his hands are automatically clean, but rather that he as a gentleman keeps his hands clean. 188.129.76.252 (talk) 13:13, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

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