On the methods of acquiring knowledge : an introductory lecture to the course of institutes of medicine, for the session 1838-9 : delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, November 6, 1838 / by Samuel Jackson.

  • Jackson, Samuel, 1787-1872.
Date:
1838
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the methods of acquiring knowledge : an introductory lecture to the course of institutes of medicine, for the session 1838-9 : delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, November 6, 1838 / by Samuel Jackson. 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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    Few phenomena are single. Most are compound. There exists in them, properly speaking, elementary phenomena, and as they exhibit several aspects, they are to be studied and ob- served under each. There may be combined, in the subject of observation, physical, chemical, electrical, inorganic, organic, vital phenomena. Now, to make a correct observation and examination, there must be knowledge sufficient to recognise each phenomenon separately; to place it in its proper category; and to estimate the part it performs, or its true value, in the character or nature of the general phenomenon that is studied. Hasty, imperfect, and ignorant observation and experiment, have been the most serious obstacles to the progress of science. Medical science has especially suffered from their disastrous in- fluence. False observations, false facts, deceptive experiments, have overloaded the science of medicine, and retarded its ad- vance. A false observation may occupy a short time for its promulgation. But years are required to accumulate the proofs necessary to establish conclusively its falsity. In the physiological sciences, the phenomena to be observed are more complex, than those of any other department of know- ledge. It is this circumstance that renders every thinking mind so distrustful of medical observation; it is this circumstance, that is the cause, in medicine, of the difficulty of avoiding error even with the best intentions and most guarded caution. From the numerous and diversified phenomena, the subject of investigation, in medical science, the most instructed and most careful observer, can with difficulty, avoid the most seri- ous mistakes, and falling into gross misconceptions. The ani- mal economy, in its healthful condition, exhibits a combina- tion of physical, organic, chemical, and vital phenomena, so in- timately blended, that they cannot exist separated from each other. In their combination, they represent, apparently, but a single phenomenon; yet, regarded nearer, and with an instruct- ed eye, this single phenomenon presents different aspects or faces, corresponding to its component elementary phenomena. Its true character can be understood only by breaking it up into its separate parts. But this requires skill and knowledge. It is