On scientific medicine, and its relations to, and claims upon, society at large : being an address read before ... the North of England Medical Association ... 1840 / by William Elliot.

Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On scientific medicine, and its relations to, and claims upon, society at large : being an address read before ... the North of England Medical Association ... 1840 / by William Elliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    even with non-interfering observation, in cases where the latter would unskilfully and injurious- ly meddle, he alike feels, enjoys, and becomingly manifests to others, the superiority of even limit- ed science, so far as it goes, over nearly unlimited ignorance and assurance. Neither do we mean to assert that no irregular practitioner can originate an useful plan of treat- ment, or may discover an useful medicine. The latter contribution to the good of human-kind has, doubtless, usually been the result of accident, and might come from the hands of one far below even the European quack in various kinds of knowledge, just as, for example, the anti-periodic power of Peruvian bark was discovered by an American Indian. But without a thorough knowledge of medicine neither the quack nor the savage can rightly wield that potent remedy, which, without discrimination in applying it, may just as easily be the vehicle of serious danger as of healing power. And so also of antimony,— (the reputed non-medical discoverer of whose activity had nearly therewith caused the death of his fellow-ecclesiastics,)—of opium, and of all the more active medicines. Having thus laid modern empiricism along-side modern medicine, having tried her in the ba- lances of truth and found her awfully defective in every scientific and practical qualification, little more need be added to point out the gross immorality of undertaking, of practising, and of allowing under the apparent sanction of legal au- thority, a system that can only be designated as one of atrocious imposition, fraught with danger and with death. By way, however, of complet-