New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon.

  • Gordon, Charles Alexander, 1821-1899.
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of remedies the efficient cause lies in the disease itself. [British Medical Journal, Sop. 30, 1882, pp. 611—618). Scientific prescribers too often fail when the all round prescriber succeeds. [Medical Press and Gir- cidar, Feb. 11, 1885, p. 126). As wo learned the natural course of most acute diseases, so have we come to trust less in drugs, and to leave more to nature, or to careful nursing, rest, cleanliness, and suitable nourishment. (Address in Med., Cambridge, 1880). In further reference to this subject, the views expressed by Sir Thomas Watson are valuable. Ho considered that drugs and poisons tried on animals are unreliable, the effects being often very different upon the human subject and upon the animal; he accordingly places no faith in such experiments. (His evi- dence to Royal C.)m7nission). He questioned the safety of arguing from what happens in the lower animals to what we suppose would happen in man. (Prin. and Pract. of Med., vol. i., p. 576). There are the further questions to be considered of hereditary idiosyn- crasy, and personal conditions, in regard to each of which it is from the nature of things impossible from any experiment, other than upon the individual immediately and directly concerned, to acquire a correct knowledge of the best method of acting in his particular case. A patient is not merely an object of interest as the victim of some morbid process, nor as furnishing an opportunity for individual advancement merely. He is an elaborate and interestiiig organism posses sing certain definite qualities, in fact he is a man. (Fothergill, Handbook of Therapeutics). Another question, and it of great importance pr esents itself at this point, namely—How far have changes in regard to Therapeutics that have taken place in recent years been in their nature advances and im- provements? Dr. Hare, whilo reviewing the process of medicine and therapeutics during the time that had elapsed since 1847, acknowledges that enormous advances have taken place in regard to definite and well based knowledge. But he points out the circumstance that with all that advance men have been led to attribute almost all disease to syphilis and gout. The term arterial tension has been employed with a con- venient looseness ; bacilli threaten to be enthusiastically credited with being the one thing responsible for, and explaining all diseases. At the same time that new drugs come into fashion, others go out, among iio latter many good remedies. In that period the wild rage for giving ^I'lohol in almost every case of disease have subsided in f.ivour of milk. Ill brunchilis and in diphtheria the use of emetics, which formerly was