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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
*The Strange Case* is fantasy about the limits of medical science, used
as a lever into moral and mental exploration.
At the time of publication, medicine (especially drugs) was such an
experimental field that doctors were essentially testing these drugs on
their patients---many of which (laudanum, cocaine, oxycontin) were
highly addictive.
Addiction was known, but straddled the line between disease and vice.
This parallel between Dr Jekyll's fictional transformative drug and real
drug use is the biggest component of medicine as a moral element.
The story admits Hyde as an immoral creature of vice, symbolizing the
degrading effects that addiction has on a person's character, but
Jekyll's identity is retained (until he finally loses control of the
transformations)---which, as his more reasonable persona, the guilt,
abdication of conscience, and other tendencies that addicts are prone
to.
Jekyll is not as starkly immoral as Hyde, but he is certainly
irresponsible--which is where the line for him starts to blur between
physician practitioner and patient (more accurately, test subject).
[IMAGE: needle in arm, CAPTION: Jekyll's haste and "unscientific" desire
(treating the potion as a vice rather than an experiment) led to his
ruin.]
Lanyon represents the establishment criticism of Jekyll's risky and
short-sighted experimentation, which traces its history through to the
modern day.
Doctors using drugs is no longer frowned upon (although, the precise
drugs that were prescribed at the time of publication are now known as
unmedicinal), but there is a clear establishment, and it's represented
by professional associations like the American Cancer Society or
American Heart Association.
[IMAGE: American Cancer Society logo, CAPTION: As official, established
sources of medical doctrine (not to imply they are undeserving), the ACS
provides official medical advice but also decries hack therapies]
Morality doesn't exactly correspond to this modern image of efficacy and
responsibility (the ethos represented in malpractice suits), but it does
align with the idea of a trustworthy physician.
Untrustworthy and unethical physicians come out as scandals because it
isn't the expectation of a patient, and Jekyll's untrustworthy behavior
(bleeding-edge experimentation) makes him a poor physician.
I can't find as clear of a relation for health as the specific nature of
Jekyll/Hyde's addiction and immorality, but it is relatively clear that
he is an unhealthy man.
Especially near the end, when he and Lanyon become so scarred by the
existence of Hyde and Jekyll by the constant transformation that they
become pale, sickly, and finally dead.
This is clearly an unhealthful state, discrediting Jekyll as a physician
if he still has any, and demonstrating the relation between morality and
health.
This is also encoded by Hyde's deformity without malformity and his dual
status as a very unhealthy man.
So there is clearly some sort of link between health and morality and
especially physicians' behavior, but I can't exactly specify it.
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