On the pathology and treatment of acute rheumatism : being the Lumleian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1853 / by James Alderson.

  • Alderson, James, 1795-1882.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology and treatment of acute rheumatism : being the Lumleian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1853 / by James Alderson. 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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    they conceive to be lactic acid. I will not dwell on the objection, that the very existence of this acid in the system generally, and the manner in which it would be retained in the blood in particular, are both problematical; nor, that it is difficult to understand how it is conveyed to the joints and heart, and how it may excite any especial form of disease in those organs. We must give and take permission to be mutually lenient upon many unguessed riddles of this kind; but the hypothesis is as objectionable as many other dilettanti mystical-medical suppositions (mystische - medicalische), which only attempt to hang together a couple of ideas, without displaying in what way they may be attached: it is objection- able, because the connexion in which the acid and the symptoms of acute rheumatism really stand to each other is the very reverse of that which the theory requires: there is no reason to suppose an accumulation of acid in the blood, for the acid excretions which appear in larger proportions during the disease than in health are the very reverse of a proof that there is an accumulation of acid in the blood.* So far Henle. Had I myself ventured on such a tone of animadversion, I might have been sus- pected of being disrespectfully facetious; but given as a literal translation of the words of a profound Henl6, vol. ii.; Handbuch, p. 266.