A treatise on tropical diseases ; and on the climate of the West-Indies / By Benjamin Moseley, M.D.

  • Benjamin Moseley
Date:
1787
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on tropical diseases ; and on the climate of the West-Indies / By Benjamin Moseley, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Befides, there is more labour in writing with due care and caution, in this important fcience when a man has fumifhed himfelf with mate- rials, than many have fortitude, or perhaps health to encounter. This has no doubt de- prived the world of many great difcoveries; and-kad nearly kept from it the invaluable trea- fure bequeathed by Sydenham; who never fat down to write in the latter part of his life, but he was inftantly attacked by that excruciat- ing diforder the gout; which at length brought on other difeafes that terminated his exiftence. Yet if honeft zeal for the welfare of mankind, and a delire to juftify their good opinion, could alienate felf-intereft from its attachment, and ftimulate every perfon who has had fufficient experience, and who might find leifure alfo to undertake the tafk, we fhould probably have had many Sydenhams among us. But fame, I fear, acts feebly upon hearts, to whofe ventri- cles the facred appetite for gold, has long been fixed and rivetted. Thus inflead of men of great experience and mature judgment, the world muft expect to fee young dictators come forward, to drive the nail of phyfic, and prefcribe its irrevocable laws.