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
Catalogue details

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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    MODERN PHYSIOLOGY. :o: I. Introductory Remarks. The subject of Modern Physiology, otherwise Experiments on living animals, has taken its place among the public questions of the day. It is discussed on public platforms, in journals non-professional as weU as professional, and even in private society. It is considered in reference to its relation, actual or assumed, to utility, to science, or knowledge, to public ethics, and to religion ; more recently still, it has advanced its claims to be included among the tenets in regard to which political can- didates are called upon by constituents to express their individual oijinions. It is obAdous that a question which has attained such extensive development and ramifications, demands careful and serious consideration from correspondingly numerous and wide points of view; and further, that much time and labour must be given to the inquiry by whoever is prepared to undertake it on the lines thus indicated. It is no less obvious that this time and this labour cannot be spared by men engaged in the daily work and struggle of life, and that therefore a full and free inquiry in reference thereto comes best within the province of those who have suJGBcient leisure carefully to compare and balance against each other , the very definite statements which occur on either side of the general controversy. Inasmuch, however, as the very extent of the subject is such that the ramifications already mentioned require to be followed one by one, the circumstance immediately presents itself that only by this method of treating it can its general bearings be satisfactorily exhibited. In this pamphlet I take up and consider one such point, and it, I one to which public as well as professional attention has recently been I drawn in a very marked way. Without personally having anything Nvhatevcr to gain or to lose by this controversy, and fortified by the know- 'Ige obtained from authorities whom I quote in the succeeding pages lat in it, men of eminence are arrayed on cither side, I proceed to imparo the different views taken by them respectively, according to he method usually adopted in the analysis of contending evidence in ,:^ard to any other question, whether in its nature, abstract, or mutter it fact.