Observations on the life, disease, and death of John Hunter, in elucidation of the nature and treatment of gout and angina pectoris, being the oration delivered before the Hunterian Society, at its thirty-sixth anniversary / by Joseph Ridge, M.D.

  • Ridge, Joseph, active 19th century.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the life, disease, and death of John Hunter, in elucidation of the nature and treatment of gout and angina pectoris, being the oration delivered before the Hunterian Society, at its thirty-sixth anniversary / by Joseph Ridge, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    17/52 (page 15)
    I shall premise also, as closely related to my purport, a portion of his own just epitaph, that, recognising the object, you may be reminded of the grounds on which to limit mere literary pursuits, be content witli the recompense that attends your beneficent labours, be confirmed in the love of that inde- pendence, tranquillity, and peace, which constitute the great source of comfort and of health, the best safeguard of inte- grity, and a constant security against all diversion, by the golden apples cast before Atalanta, from our straight course of victory over nature, as far as may be permitted. Si qualis fuerit rogas, mediocritate sua contentum se vixisse respondet. Literis innutritus, eousque tantum profecit, ut veritati unice litaret. The sanction and advice of Locke, sought and boasted of by the best judges of their value, may rightly serve to direct our attention to the injurious effects on the stomach and the brain, and I may add, the heart, of the causes referred to. They interfere, in an especial manner, with the digestive, assimilative, and excretory functions ; and we thus find the gouty diathesis developed, though far from exclusively, in men of deep and original thought, who cultivate their minds to the best pur- pose, and accomplish the greatest objects ; and amongst whom Harvey, and Sydenham, and the two Hunters, appear as prominent examples. His observations testify that he con- curred, not only in the reform of the treatment of fevers effected by Sydenham, and in that method of the English Hippocrates by which, when Science or a knowledge of causes is deficient, we derive indications directly from nature, the I'e- sults of experience, and the dictates of common sense, but also in the ancient doctrine of Blood-diseases, arising from the generation and retention of deleterious matter within the body, the elimination of which, combined with the gentle relief of congested organs, and the maintenance or promotion of power.