On rheumatism, rheumatic gout, and sciatica : their pathology, symptoms, and treatment / by Henry William Fuller.

  • Fuller, Henry William, 1820-1873.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On rheumatism, rheumatic gout, and sciatica : their pathology, symptoms, and treatment / by Henry William Fuller. 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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    PREFACE. -^Sn^K Above two thousand years ago, Hippocrates laid down the maxim, that all theories should be framed xa.ra $vocv fltwpuov. From that time to the present, this maxim has prevailed in many departments of medical science; but in the investigation of rheumatism it has been too often neglected. Cold, and inflammation consequent thereon, have been regarded as the beginning and end of the disease; and any facts militating against this doctrine have been heedlessly passed by, or pronounced of little moment. So that, in the words of Professor Whewell, the subjects of attention have not been external objects, but speculations previously delivered; the object has not been to interpret nature, but man's mind; the opinions of the masters are the facts which the disciples have endeavored to reduce to unity, or to follow into consequences.1 With the view of avoiding this source of error, I had proposed to myself to commence the present Treatise by a faithful record of all that has been ascertained of the history of rheumatism ; and by ref- erence to the facts thus proved and established, to show how conflict- ing opinions may be reconciled, and the pathology and treatment of the disease elucidated. The reader would thus have been impressed at the outset with many of those striking facts which serve as expo- nents of the true nature of the disorder, and would have been enabled to estimate the force of any argument opposed to his preconceived opinions. But so many obstacles presented themselves to this arrange- ment, that I determined to commence at once, by a full exposition of my views of the disorder, and by constant reference to established facts, to counteract, as far as possible, those sources of uncertainty which, under this arrangement, might otherwise have presented them- selves. Nothing but a firm conviction of the necessity for a full recognition of the true nature of the disease, with a view to its scien- tific and successful treatment, could have induced me to enter, so fully as I have done, into the various circumstances which bear upon this important question; and if such details appear out of place in a trea- tise intended to be purely practical, their insertion will, I trust, be excused, on account of the information they afford to the physiologist. The space allotted to those diseases of the Heart which arise so frequently in connection with rheumatism, may, at first sight, appear 1 Whewell's ' Inductive Sciences,' vol. i, p. 18.