New remedies : the method of preparing and administering them : their effects on the healthy and diseased economy, &c. / by Robley Dunglison.

  • Dunglison, Robley, 1798-1869.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New remedies : the method of preparing and administering them : their effects on the healthy and diseased economy, &c. / by Robley Dunglison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    TO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS. The information, concerning the remedies of more recent intro- duction, lies scattered in so many works, that it cannot be ac- cessible to the mass of physicians. The author has, consequently, believed, that he would be rendering a service to the profession by concentrating the results of experience within reasonable limits, so that they may be readily available to all. The majority of the new agents—it will be found—have been furnished by modern chemistry; and their employment has been attended with this ad- vantage, that—when properly prepared—they are not liable to uncertainty in their operation; whilst the various plants from which the strychnine, emetine, quinine, &c. are obtained, are liable to irregularity of action, owing to faults in desiccation, to the season in which they are culled, &c. &c.—objections which cannot apply to the active principles when separated from them. Owing to the difficulty of sifting the results of true from those of false observation, the author has esteemed it proper to give, as far as he was able, the recorded experience of all who have employed the remedies in question. It need scarcely be said, that to make a correct observer and a good therapeutist, a knowledge of every department of medical science is demanded. Anatomy, physiology, pathology, and ma- teria medica are, indeed, but introductory to the great object which the practitioner has in view—the alleviation and removal of suffering. Were it otherwise, it would be but necessary to in- stitute empirical trials, in every case of disease, with various articles in and out of the received lists of the materia medica, and from such vague trials to endeavour to deduce what is termed experience. The erroneous idea prevails too extensively, that every one is capable of profiting by observation, and that, therefore, all who