Introductory lecture before the medical class of the Kentucky School of Medicine : on the truth of medicine as evinced by its origin, progress and present condition / by N. B. Marshall.

  • Marshall, N. B.
Date:
1860
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture before the medical class of the Kentucky School of Medicine : on the truth of medicine as evinced by its origin, progress and present condition / by N. B. Marshall. 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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    ditioii much of imperfection, withoul regarding these as evidences ol falsity in the principles of OUT science; but, on the contrary, its existence at all at the present day, must lie admitted as a high indication'of its truth. Now we are not to confound the principles of medicine with the ditlerent and often conflicting theories which have been entertained and abandoned at various periods of its history. The principles of medicine are those which have l.een deduced from facts that have been the subjects of obser- vation and investigation for centuries upon centuries, and therefore have the authority and sanction of vast and extended experience. By the side of such experience, how contemptibly insignificant appears the boasted ex- perience of the different isms and pathies which from time to time have reared their ephemeral heads against the truth of regular practice? Medicine, or the administration of remedies for disease, arose as the nat- ural consequence of the fall of man. I riven from the garden of Eden, he was ((impelled to till the ground for the sustenance of his body, and he soon found himself subject to aches and pains, against which it became as neces- sary to provide as against the pangs of hunger. For almost all of thesufffer- ingsand afflictions resulting from the fall, an all-wise and merciful God lias seen fit to give us a remedy, and reason and analogy alone might have taught us, without the positive evidence afforded by what medicine has done and is still accomplishing, that with the bane disease there was also provided an an- tidote. Whether the first efforts towards the mitigation of the ravages of disease by the administration of medicines arose through direct information from the Supreme Being, or were the result of faith in His merciful provision for such Bufferings, we cannot tell. To the former idea mythology, the crea- tion of man's unaided reason and fancy points, attributing the primal ideas of physic to direct revelation from the gods, touched with pity at beholding the unchecked ravages of disease, let loose upon the earth through the ire of some of their own number. However this may be, we may well suppose that the first steps in this direction were simple and few; but from this begin- ning, small as it was, lias resulted a science, which is acknowledged wherever civilization has extended, while even among the most rude and savage of the earth we find traces of the efforts of man in this direction. Now this in itself is strong presumptive evidence of the truth of regular medicine, for it is hardly probable, indeed it is utterly impossible to suppose, that anything de- void of truth (although we may readily admit that such a thing might find birth and even take powerful hold upon the feelings and opinions of men in rude states of society) should grow and increase through age after age, with- standing from time to time the most violent assaults of the learned and un- learned upon it, and now, in spite of time and attack in the nineteenth cen- tury, should, under the most scrutinizing investigation, stand forth as an ad- mitted science, and claim among its votaries and supporters many of the no- blest and brightest intellects of the world. Nor is it necessary for the weight of this evidence that the ideas and opinions entertained throughout this vast period of time should have always been identical and the same ; for that would imply the perfection of a science at its commencement, full growth at the first dawn of infancy. It would be requiring what has not been true with regard to any discovery or science, and what is, moreover, totally at variance with a state of progress and improvement, the natural, necessary, and perpetual con- dition of man. The original idea was unquestionably to administer medicine for the relief of suffering, the cure of disease. Here evidently was a belief in the existence of two forces or powers antagonistic to each other, disease on one hand, remedies on the other; and it was the direct object and aim of the first, and indeed of all subsequent research and investigation, to discover such powers or influences in medicines and other remedial means as should overcome and eradicate the causes of disease, as well as disease itself. This is the idea which has been acted upon through all ages, from the first concep- tion of it to the present time, which gave rise to, and is at the foundation of.