Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie.

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / by John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    It is a matter of the utmost delicacy for a physi- cian to obtrude upon the profession his general statements, in regard cither to the phenomena ot disease, or the action of remedies. The value ot such statements does not depend upon his veracity only, hut, must likewise rest in a very great degree, upon the character which he bears as a philoso- phical observer, and the extent of the observations on which his conclusions are founded, llenco arises the hesitation with which we receive all general statements, when made by persons witli ■whose 0])portunitics of observation and habits of induction we arc not acquainted ; and the im- portance which we attach to a simple record of tacts, in a concise and accessible form, apart both from hypothesis and system. The author of such a record contributes that which has a fixed and certain value, dependent only upon his correctness in distinctly describing what lie has seen ; and tlius is turnished a series of facts which oveiy l)ractitioncr may study for himself, and from which he may ac(|uire a knowledge of phenomena, and ol tlieir relations to each other, nearly in tlie sanu^ manner as lie docs from his own observation. b