Substance of a lecture on the applications of chemistry to medicine : introductory to a chemical course in the Newcastle Medical School / by Dr. Glover.

  • Glover, Robert Mortimer, 1816-1859.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Substance of a lecture on the applications of chemistry to medicine : introductory to a chemical course in the Newcastle Medical School / by Dr. Glover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tical value of scientific studies. And lest any one should deem I am fighting with a mere shadow, the history of the introduction of the stethoscope may be referred to, and the prejudiced oppo- sition which this useful discovery encountered from the mass of the professsion. The same feeling which opposed the use of the stethoscope, now exists, to some extent, with regard to the ap- plication of Chemistry to Medicine; and he who devotes himself with zeal and ardent hopes to this new and promising investiga- tion, receives from many that most damnatory title of theorist, which in some cases, when I have heard it applied, should have been translated into zealous and persevering, observing and talented—nay, I may ventui-e to add, practical, in the true sense of the word. The meaning of these terms, theoretical and prac- tical, as they are often used, is but the expression of a distinc- tion which has existed between the philosophical and empirical practitioners of Medicine from the earliest periods, and is well stated in the pages of Celsus. This distinction arises naturally from the difficulties attending the practice of the healing h%a.vt— the ignorance of all but its professors regarding it—which pro- ceeds from the unpopularity of the preliminary studies of the medical man, and from the obscurity with which the results ob- tained in the treatment of disease are veiled from those most interested: from all these causes united, an extensive career is opened to every species of pretension. No profession requires such general attainments and extensive mental cultivation; and, consequently, when we consider the difficulties which beset the path of the conscientious and scientific practitioner, and the fatal ease with which the empiric may practise, we easily expect that no scrutiny can guard against the admittance into the medical profession of men inferior to its duties, and ever ready to main- tain their position, by proclaiming loudly that empiricism is the only correct mode of pursuing medical truths, and that generali- zation, founded on analogy and the aids offered by science, is useless. The distinction between the empirical and philosophical phy- sician was much better marked in ancient times than at present;