The prevention of valvular disease of the heart : a proposal to check rheumatic endocarditis in its early stage and thus prevent the development of permanent organic disease of the valves / by Richard Caton.

  • Caton, Richard.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The prevention of valvular disease of the heart : a proposal to check rheumatic endocarditis in its early stage and thus prevent the development of permanent organic disease of the valves / by Richard Caton. 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.

    22/112 (page 6)
    Professional reluctance to accept neiv methods. In the acceptance of new proposals of treatment our profession observes a cautious scepticism. On the whole this is a wise mental attitude. But we should remember Lord Beaconsfield's dictum, Incredulity also has its dupes. The writer when a young house- surgeon in a great hospital saw the introduction of antiseptic surgical practice; he cannot easily forget the almost contemptuous reception that system met with from many of the ablest senior surgeons of the time, men moreover who were perfectly sincere and honest in their disbelief, who were free from jealousy or spite towards those who introduced the new prin- ciple. They simply and honestly believed there was nothing in the proposal; some of them even supposed that after giving it a fair trial they had found it value- less. There w^ere at that time juvenile critics, I must confess, who while honouring and respecting their seniors, were of opinion that certain of them had never fully grasped either the principle or the details of the method. This experience was to the writer a forcible lesson as to the importance of preserving an open mind. A new and valuable fact sometimes lies very near to us without our perceiving it. We had Salix in our materia medica and no lack of cases of rheumatism needing it for centuries before Maclagan and Strieker pointed out the relation of the one to the other; even when it was pointed out many of us refused to accept the precious new truth. What I am anxious to do is to show grounds for the belief that something may be done in the direction