Clinical lectures on the principles and practice of medicine / by John Hughes Bennett.

  • Bennett, John Hughes, 1812-1875.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on the principles and practice of medicine / by John Hughes Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    The Relation of the Science to the Art of Medicine. If we regard the whole field of human knowledge, and reflect on the differences which exist among the various sciences, we must insensibly be led to classify them into two great divisions, viz,, the exact and the in- exact. All the sciences belooging to the first class are characterised by the possession of a primitive fact or law, which, being applicable to the whole range of phenomena of which the science consists, renders its dif- ferent parts harmonious, and the deductions of its cultivators conclusive. Thus, the physical sciences possess a primitive fact in what is called the law of gravity. It was Sir Isaac Newton who demonstrated, by a happy effort of genius, that all the planets in our system gravitate towards the sun by the same law, and in consequence of the same principle, as that by which bodies on the earth gravitate towards its centre. This theory was subsequently found applicable to a vast number of circumstances, and by it the philosopher now explains many of the material phenomena of the universe, and the astronomer calculates the movements of the heavenly bodies. This law applies to all the facts of which physical science is made up. In the same manner, chemistry possesses a primi- tive fact in what is called the law of affinity, discovered later by Lavoi- sier. If we mix two salts which mutually decompose each other, a third salt is formed by the union in definite proportions of their constituent elements. This, in the language of chemists, is brought about by chemical affinity. If we repeat the experiment a thousand times, the same result takes place, and the law, which applies in one case, is found universally applicable to every phenomenon in chemical science. The possession of this primitive fact, then, communicates the greatest accu- racy and precision to the sciences which possess it, and on this account they are called the exact sciences. But there are other sciences which are altogether destitute of a pri- mitive fact; which consist of groups of phenomena, each of which may or may not be governed by a particular law. Such a one is agriculture. No man, however skilful, can till the ground or cultivate the soil, and be certain of the same result on every occasion. Numerous circum- stances, over which he has no control, may destroy his anticipations and show the fallacy of his calculations, and this, after every known condition has been fulfilled, and every possible degree of prudence and sagacity has been exercised to ensure success. The same means, appa- rently, which operate at one time fail to do so at another. Such sciences, then, are denominated inexact sciences, and it is to this class that medi- cine belongs. Now, the cultivators of medicine always have been, and are still endeavoring to render the science exact; and hence at various times individuals have brought forward what they conceived to be a law or primitive fact, and have tried to show that it was applicable to all vital phenomena. Some have placed the law in the physical condition of the solids, and others in the physical condition of the fluids. Hence the terms solidists and Jluidists. A third party have sought it in the func- tional conditions of the body, viz., an alteration in the living force. They have been called vitalists. If, for instance, we could constitute the