Fallacies of the faculty : with the principles of chrono-thermal medicine / by Samuel Dickson.

  • Dickson, Samuel, 1802-1869.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fallacies of the faculty : with the principles of chrono-thermal medicine / by Samuel Dickson. 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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    blood-letting and other exhaustive measures, Dr. Todd, if I am not misinformed, was anticipated by many medical men both within and without the walls of our own College. '' But in the teeth of facts,—facts patent alike to the majority of the profession and to the better instructed por- tion of the public,—I cannot agree with you that for this revolution in practice we are indebted to no one man in particular. Your assumption that this revolution may, perhaps, have been the gradual result either of some change in the condition of the atmosphere or of some alteration in the human body, you will pardon me for saying, I consider altogether groundless and un- philosophical. The records of our hospitals, you say, bear you out in this belief. I am glad you qualify that statement with the words u ni fallor; for here assuredly you labour under a misconception. Your impression that the annals of St. George's Hospital show that this great change of practice began there thirty years ago, can scarcely be correct. Dr. Chambers, who was senior physician of that hospital at the date you refer to, used depletion very largely up to his retirement from practice;—and his retirement, if my memory serves me, did not take place till about fifteen years afterwards. You are right, nevertheless, when you say that venesec- tion is every year becoming rarer; and that cupping and leeching, yearly diminished, are now little employed; while the expenditure in our hospitals for wine, brandy, and malt liquor, has on the contrary increased. You say nothing of the increased expenditure for Quinine and other supporting remedies. This complete reversal of a practice which existed from time immemorial must not only have Ldd a beginning,