John Hunter : man of science and surgeon (1728-1793) / by Stephen Paget ; with introduction by Sir James Paget.

  • Paget, Stephen, 1855-1926.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: John Hunter : man of science and surgeon (1728-1793) / by Stephen Paget ; with introduction by Sir James Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    repeatedly tested and confirmed, we may be able to think of others which appear naturally to follow them, and thus, by thinking, to enlarge our knowledge. But the history of science may teach that this is rarely safe ; and that every thinking must be tried patiently and carefully, by experiment or repeated care- ful observation, before it can be safely accepted as truth. Hunter held by this rule. He did indeed think ; he spent long times in only thinking; but we may believe that in many of these long times his conclusion was that in thus thinking he was tempting himself to the wrong way, and that, at most, it could only suggest how he should patiently and carefully try what he had been led to think. Thus at least we may test his writings, and much of his museum work. The same may be held now; facts are more numerous, and more nearly fully known ; but few are even now so complete as to be safe for generalising, and so it must yet be for a long time in all the divisions of medical science. The surety of every belief can only be sure after it has been tried by experiment or further observation. The influence of Hunter may be observed in a com- parison of the progress of medical science and practice in the present and in the last century. It is impossible to tell how much of the change may be due to him ; but the increase of accurate scientific observation, and the reliance on it rather than on theories, are clearly in accordance with his rule of study. And on the