Information Center - Registered Green Caste of Physicians

The Physicians are one of the five High Castes which make up the Gorean government. This is the caste of those who concern themselves with the healing arts. Surgeons, apothecaries, medical researchers and health practitioners are all members of this caste. Universally recognized as non-combatants during time of war.

Tarnsman of Gor

The Player was a rather old man, extremely unusual on Gor, where the stabilization serums were developed centuries ago by the Caste of Physicians in Ko-ro-ba and Ar, and transmitted to the physicians of other cities at several of the Sardar Fairs. Age, on Gor, interestingly, was regarded, and still is, by the caste of Physicians as a disease, not an inevitable natural phenomenon. the fact that it seemed a universal disease did not dissuade the caste from considering how it might be combated. Accordingly the work of centuries was turned to this end. Many other diseases, which presumably flourished centuries ago on Gor, tended to be neglected, as less dangerous and less universal then that of aging. A result tended to be that those less susceptible lived on, propagating their kind. At any rate disease is now almost unknown among the gorean cities, with the exception of the dreaded Dar-Kosis disease or the holy disease, research upon which is generally frowned upon by the caste of initiates who insist the disease is a visitation of the displeasure of the Preist-Kings on its recipients. I also think that the Gorean success in combating aging may be partly do to the severe limitations on the technology of the human beings on the planet. Preist-Kings have no wish that men become powerful enough on Gor to challenge them for the supremacy of the planet. they believe, perhaps correctly, that man is a shrewish animal which, if it had the power, would be likely to fear Priest-Kings and attempt to exterminate then. Be that as it may , the preist-Kings have limited man severely on this planet in many respects, notably in weaponry, communication and transportation. On the other hand, the brilliance which men might have turned into destructive channels was then diverted, almost of necessity, to other fields, most notably medicine, though considerable achievements have been accomplished in the production of translation devices, illumination, and architecture.

Assassin of Gor pg. 30K

"A notable exception to the generalization that woman of a Caste normally do not engage in Caste work is the Caste of Physicians, whose women are commonly trained, as are the boys, in the practice of medicine. Even the Physicians however, normally do not admit their women to full practice until they have borne two children. The purpose of this is to retain a high level of intelligence in the caste. Professional women, it is well understood, tend not to reproduce themselves, a situation which, over time, would be likely to produce a diminution in the quality of the caste. Concern for the future of the caste is thus evidenced in this limitation by the physicians on the rights of their women to participate without delay in the caste craft. The welfare of the caste, typically, takes priority in the Gorean mind over the ambitions of specific individuals. The welfare of a larger number of individuals, as the Goreans reason, correctly or incorrectly, is more important than the welfare of a smaller number of individuals. I do not argue this. I only report it. The woman of the Physicians, at the age of fifteen, in many cities, wears two bracelets on her left wrist. When she has one child one bracelet is removed; when she has a second child the second bracelet is removed. She may then, if she desires, enter into the full practice of her craft."

Fighting Slave of Gor pg. 210

(Note here the word, normally, which means that is not true in all places)

"When the Physician had finished the cleansing, chemical sterilization and dressing of the merchant's wounds, he left. With him the majority of the watchers withdrew as well. The Scribe had paid the Physician from a small iron box, taken from a locked trunk, a tarsk bit."

Beasts of Gor pg. 104

"Thurnock" I said, "give this Physician a double tarn of gold."

Marauders of Gor pg. 19

"There is at least one area, however," said my father, "In which the Priest Kings do take a most active interest in this world, and that is the area of technology. They limit, selectively, the technology available to us, the Men Below the Mountains. For example, incredibly enough, weapon technology is controlled to the point where the most powerful devices of war are the crossbow and lance. Further, there is no mechanized transportation or communication equipment or detection devices such as the radar and sonar equipment so much in evidence in the military establishments of your world." "On the other hand," he said, "you will learn that in lighting, shelter, agricultural techniques, and medicine, for example, the Mortals, or the Men Below the Mountains, are relatively advanced."

From Tarnsman of Gor pg. 32

Further members of castes, such as the Physicians and Builders use the fairs for the dissemination of information and techniques among Caste brothers, as is prescribed in their codes in spite of the fact that their respective cities may be hostile.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 9

My chamber slave's accent had been pure High Caste Gorean, though I could not place the city. Probably her caste had been that of the Builders or Physicians, for had her people been Scribes I would have expected a greater subtlety of inflections, the use of less common grammatical cases; and her people been of the Warriors I would have expected a blunter speech, rather belligerently simple, expressed in great reliance on the indicative mood, and habitually a rather arrogant refusal to venture beyond the most straightforward of sentence structures.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 52

This sweet, fierce, liquid speech is the common bond that tends to hold together the Gorean world. It is the common property of the Administrator of Ar, the herdsman beside the Vosk, a peasant from Tor, a scribe from Thentis, a metalworker from Tharna, a physican from Cos, a pirate from Port Kar, a warrior from Koroba.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 52

She went to the chest against the wall, to replace the tube of ointment. "The ointment will soon be absorbed" she said. "In a few minutes there will be no trace of it, nor the cuts." I whistled. "The physicians of Treve" I said "have marvelous medicines." "It is an ointment of the Priest Kings, " she said.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 64

"But my father" said Vika, "whose slave she was, and who was of the Caste of Physicians of Treve, loved her very much and asked her to be his Free Companion." Vika laughed softly. "For three years she refused him, " she said.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 69

"Oh how pleased I was when they beat him and I cried out," she said, "for I hated him - so much I hated him - for he was not a true man and even though of the Caste of Physicians could not stand pain. He could not even bear to hear the cry of a larl."

"Perhaps," I suggested, "it was because he could not stand pain that he remained a member of the Caste of Physicians." "Perhaps, " said Vika. "He always wanted to stop suffering, even that of an animal or slave."

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 71

"That is the reason then for your limitations of their weaponry and technology?" "Of course" said Misk, "but we have allowed them to develop in many areas - in medicine for example, where something approximating the Stabilizaton Serums has been independently developed."

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 124

"Who has done this?" I asked. "I" said Parp. "The operation is not as difficult as you might expect and I have performed it many times." "He is a member of the Caste of Physicians" said Kusk "and his manual dexterity is superior even to that of the Priest Kings."

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 254

"I had found the elevator which has originally been used by Parp, whom I had learned was a physician of Treve, and who had been my host in my first hour in the domain of Priest Kings."

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 286

"I shall return to Treve" said Vika. "I shall continue there the work of a physician from Treve. I know much of his craft and I shall learn more."

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 305

I was pleased that she would go to Ar, where she, though a woman, might learn the craft of medicine under Masters appointed by Kazrak, which she might found a new life for herself far from warlike plundering Treve, where she might work as befitted the daughter of a skilled, courageous father, where she might perhaps forget a simple warrior of Ko-ro-ba.

Priest Kings of Gor pg. 306

A thank you to Muireanne for the quotes she complied from Priest Kings of Gor