Evolution of preventive medicine / by Sir Arthur Newsholme.

  • Newsholme, Arthur, Sir, 1857-1943.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evolution of preventive medicine / by Sir Arthur Newsholme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Theological and Sacerdotal Obsessions Regarding Disease The history of medicine, and especially of pre¬ ventive medicine, being coterminous with the history of science, it is concerned, in its earlier stages, with various obsessions of the human mind, which suc¬ cessively have been elevated into the position of doctrines or dogmas. In the process of generalization dealing with a body of facts, or more often in former days related to philosophical considerations which have taken the place of facts, certain stages are passed. A hypothesis is formed having some apparent relation to the observations. When confirmed—or apparently so— by further facts, the hypothesis becomes a Theory; and this theory becomes a Doctrine when it is re¬ garded as embodying immutable truth. Evidently a Doctrine which is sound is a time- saving device, obviating the need for individual decision in the special circumstances of each case; but the history of medicine is one of successive doctrines embodying false conceptions of physiology and pathology, because they have not been based on accurate and adequate observation and experimen¬ tation. In the history of medicine we repeatedly see persistent belated eddies of former doctrines, rubbing