Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/508

 488 SURICATE SURREY to a peculiar responsibility. The same is true of surgeons of great pretensions in large cities as compared with those residing in remote and thinly settled districts. In undertaking a case, the surgeon also contracts that he will apply the skill which he possesses, whatever be its degree, with reasonable and ordinary diligence and care. Extraordinary care is no more im- plied than extraordinary skill ; nor is the prac- titioner supposed to guarantee a cure, though he may if he chooses contract to effect a cure, and then he must answer for a failure. The practitioner's skill in any case will ordinarily be required to embrace those phases and phenom- ena which usually characterize the dominant disease; and any mischance which connects itself immediately with these will involve the question of skill. His diligence and care will be exercised in watching for and guarding against the accidental influences which, if overlooked, may delay or even prevent the restoration of the patient. If he have brought ordinary skill and care to the treatment of his case, the sur- geon is not responsible for want of success nor for mistakes in cases of real doubt and un- certainty. The surgeon's liability in cases of malpractice is ordinarily only a civil one, and the injury he does can usually be compensated by damages. But, in cases where death has followed the treatment, and it has seemed to be the direct consequence of the treatment, there have been, not unfrequently, charges of criminal malpractice preferred against the med- ical practitioner. To constitute a crime, there must be a malicious or criminal intent. This intent may exist in an actual design, or the law will infer it from gross rashness or want of circumspection. Where no statutory pro- hibition intervenes, all regular and irregular practitioners are to be placed on the same foot- ing. Leaving out of consideration cases of ex- press malice, which would hardly be included under the designation of malpractice, our topic is reduced to those cases in which the charge is founded upon gross ignorance, gross negli- gence, or gross rashness. With particular ref- erence to the charge of manslaughter, the law, especially in England, is that " if one, whether a medical man or not, profess to deal with the life or health of another, he is bound to use competent skill and sufficient attention; and if he cause the death of the other through a gross want of either of these, he will be guilty of manslaughter ;" or as an eminent American authority, Mr. Bishop, states the law : " The carelessness in a medical man which, if death follow, will render him liable for manslaugh- ter, is gross carelessness, or, as it is more strongly expressed, the grossest ignorance or most criminal inattention." SIRICATE, a carnivorous mammal of South Africa, coming near the ichneumons. It is the ryzana (suricata) capemis (111.), and is some- times called zenick. It is about a foot long, with a tail of 6 or 8 in., and about 6 in. high ; it is nocturnal, dwelling in burrows which it excavates with its stout claws; the color is grayish brown, tinged with yellow, with ob- scure dark bands across the back. It is docile Suricate (Ryzsena capensis). and intelligent, and is often domesticated for the destruction of vermin. SURINAM, or Dutch Guiana. See GUIANA. SURINAM, a river of Dutch Guiana, which rises in the mountains on the S. frontier, flows through the centre of the colony, and f all* into the Atlantic about 10 m. below Paramaribo after a course of about 300 m. It has several tributaries, and is navigable for large vessels about 30 m. from its mouth. SURREY, a S. E. county of England, border- ing on Middlesex (from which it is separated by the Thames), Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire; area, 748 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 1,090,270. That part of the county which lies on the Thames, with much of the land on the borders, is exceedingly fertile. Parts of the shire are famed for the beauty of their scenery. The principal streams are the Wey, Mole, and Wandle, which fall into the Thames. There are extensive market gardens and flower farms, where besides flowers medicinal herbs are raised in large quantities. Numerous canals and rail- roads intersect the county. Silk, woollen goods, hosiery, paper, earthenware, leather, and ale are manufactured. Besides Southwark, Lam- beth, and other portions of London, the most important places are the three county towns, Guildf ord, Croydon, and Kingston, and Epsom, Reigate, Farnham, and Godalming. SURREY, Henry Howard, earl of, an English poet, born about 1516, beheaded on Tower hill, London, Jan. 21, 1547. He was the eld- est son of Thomas Howard, third duke of Norfolk, and passed his youth at the court of Henry VIII. In 1532 he married the daugh- ter of the earl of Oxford, and went to France with the duke of Richmond. He assisted in the trial of Anne Boleyn in 1536, served in France in 1540, and was imprisoned for some wild irregularities in 1543. In 1544 he com- manded in France, and earned the rank of field marshal. After the taking of Boulogne he became its governor, and continued the