On the scientific investigation of disease in animals and man / by a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians.

Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the scientific investigation of disease in animals and man / by a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    ' • r ' ON-THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF DISEASE IN ANIMALS AND MAN. The following remarks have been called forth by observa- tions which have lately appeared in the public journals with reference to the scientific investigation of the cattle plague, but they apply to the method of conducting scientific in- quiries generally into the exact nature of disease, a subject which seems to me to deserve greater attention than it has hitherto received from the pubhc. The opinion that the nature of disease should form the subject of a thorough scientific investigation seems now to be gaining ground. The httle real knowledge we possess con- cerning the natm-e and properties of contagious poisons which have been so fatal in all ages, to man and to domestic animals, must have struck every intelligent person. Not only have earnest physicians felt and acknowledged their ignorance, but the difficulty of the investigation seems to be such that all then* attempts to ascertain exactly how con- tagious diseases originate and spread have failed. But in these days the means at our disposal for investi- gating such questions are far more efficient than was formerly the case, and they are becoming more and more perfect every day, wliile from time to time completely new methods of in- quiry are discovered. The public may, therefore, feel desirous that the question should now be subjected to still more careful and minute scientific investigation. But it is doubtful if many who hold this opinion have any accmate conception B