Introductory address delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York : October 16, 1855 / by Jno. C. Dalton, Jun.

  • Dalton, John Call, 1825-1889.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York : October 16, 1855 / by Jno. C. Dalton, Jun. 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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    remedy. This was a blind beginning; but necessarily the only one that could, then be made. In this, as in all similar cases, it gradually became manifest that such a plan of opera- tions, though necessary in the outset, was altogether inade- quate to the completion of the work. The subject showed itself too vast, and the question too intricate. The plan of the iEsculapian tablets might be followed for ages without pro- ducing directly any scientific result worth having; because it proposes to itself the logical impossibility of a simple answer to a complicated question. Instead of being homogeneous, the science of medicine is seen to be composed of several differ- ent departments,—the simpler of which must be thoroughly understood before we can approach the more complicated with any hope of success. A certain method, or order, in our studies therefore becomes necessary ; for without it, pro- gress is impossible. The study of medicine is divided accord- ingly into certain distinct departments or branches, which are under the charge of different teachers, and which follow each other in a pretty natural and connected series. These are Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Materia Medica, and Therapeutics. Chemistry lies so at the basis of medical science that it may be said to be rather a preparatory study than a part of medicine, strictly speaking. It does not, in fact, necessarily introduce us to medical studies proper. We may study Chemistry thoroughly, without knowing anything about Medi- cine. Still, it is so closely interwoven with nearly every department that follows—with Anatomy, Physiology, Ma- teria Medica, and Therapeutics—it is so much more neces- sary to the physician than to the student of most other sciences, that it is naturally and indispensably incorporated into the teaching of a medical school. The physician is, par excellence, the student of nature. It is not his place to invent, to theorise, to speculate. His subject is the phenomena pre- sented by natural bodies, animate and inanimate; and his object the modification of these phenomena, by combining them to his own advantage. The inanimate substances, that form so enormous a proportion of the mass of the globe, first