A letter to Mr. George Adams on the subject of medical electricity; from Mr. John Birch, surgeon.

  • Birch, John, 1745?-1815.
Date:
1792
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Mr. George Adams on the subject of medical electricity; from Mr. John Birch, surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    4/58 (page 4)
    ment, though I fhould not, like them, have condemned the art for the faults of the artift. The public have a right to expeeft from me fome account of the refult of thofe experiments in medical electricity, which I have now been more than twelve years engaged in, and in which I could never have fo invariably perfift- ed, had I not found it in many cafes exclufively eminent and efficacious; for if it applied only to fuch difeafes as were curable by other means, it would, I am fenfible, avail little in practice: but it’s merit is, that it often affords relief where every other hope is loft, and faves the noble art of furgery from the opprobrium of amputation. It was not till after feveral years experience, that I formed in my own mind a fyftem ariftng from it’s actions on difeafe; this fyftem was the re- fult of continued obfervation, and as it has en- abled me to teach the practice more feientift- cally, I can have no objection to add it to your ufeful Effay; and to illuftrate it by a feries of cafes, which will enable the reader to judge of the truth or deception of it. If it fhould in- duce thofe who may have taken up the prac- tice without a fufficient knowledge of the fub- ject, to refume it on better grounds, I will ven- ture to fay, it will anfwer their expectations, provided they are matters of the inftrument, and