Of human bondage
BMJ 2012; 345 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8410 (Published 12 December 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e8410- Seamus O’Mahony, consultant gastroenterologist, Cork University Hospital, Ireland
- seamus.omahony{at}hse.ie
Of Human Bondage paints a vivid picture of medical student life in late Victorian London. W Somerset Maugham graduated from St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in 1897 but never practised. His hero in the book, Philip Carey, is a student at “St Luke’s.” He describes the first visit to the dissection room: “There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species.” Philip is bored by the preclinical subjects, but finds clinical medicine engrossing when he becomes …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.