Electro-galvanic symptoms, and electro-magnetic remedies, in chronic diseases of the class hypertrophy, or chronic enlargements of the organs and limbs, including all forms of scrofula, with illustrative diagrams and cases / by H.H. Sherwood.

  • Sherwood, H. H. (Henry Hall)
Date:
1837
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Electro-galvanic symptoms, and electro-magnetic remedies, in chronic diseases of the class hypertrophy, or chronic enlargements of the organs and limbs, including all forms of scrofula, with illustrative diagrams and cases / by H.H. Sherwood. 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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    CHRONIC DISEASES. CHAPTER I. In order to ascertain the unknown causes of effects, or things, one of two modes is generally adopted. In the one usually chosen, in accordance with common philosophy, theories are first construct- ed, and then facts collected to confirm them; but a sufficient num- ber is very rarely found for this purpose, and these theories, resting on slight foundations, are consequently almost always fallacious. In the other mode, which is according to inductive philosophy, a great number of corresponding facts is collected, and the theory or knowledge derived from a comparison of them is true and substan- tial. The latter mode should always be adopted to establish a theory on a foundation that cannot be overturned. For if a theory in phi- losophy be true, the number of comparative facts that may be brought to its support, is absolutely innumerable and without end. So that if a certain number of facts is not sufficient to satisfy every person of the truth of the theory, any additional number can be presented to them, that may be necessary for such purpose. The theory upon which this little work is founded, was obtained by that inductive process which has elicited the true causes of uni- versal motion, and the laws by which it is governed; and the de- monstrations on the electro-dynamic rings have since placed the hypothesis beyond rational doubt. The part of this theory which belongs to the human form, and to chronic diseases, derives, from the causes of motion, new symptoms of those diseases which belong to the class hypertrophy or swelling of the organs and limbs, and the laws of magnetic motion explain the cause of their phenomena. When the discoveries thus made, were compared with the various theories of the medical profession on these subjects, it was easy to see how fallacious they were, and with what ease they might be overturned and buried forever in one common ruin. The effect of the common practice, founded on these theories, has long been known to be uniformly injurious when carried beyond the mere object of palliating an occasionally urgent symp- tom, and is therefore exactly what we should expect to arise from an entire ignorance of the laws of organic and molecular motion, and of the symptoms dependent on those laws.