Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy / by order of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

  • Massachusetts Medical Society.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy / by order of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    3 teacher of Anatomy, in the early part of his prac¬ tice, was called upon to reduce a dislocated hip, and, after making several ineffectual attempts, was obliged to abandon the case. He procured a subject, and immediately applied himself to the dissection of the hip joint, and to the study of the muscles and ligaments, by whose agency the bone is retained in its unnatural state of dis¬ location. Having made himself master of the anatomy of the part, and discovered, as he thought, the cause of his failure, he returned to the dislo¬ cated hip, renewed his efforts, guided by a more perfect knowledge, and succeeded to his entire satisfaction. But, supposing it conceded, that anatomical knowledge is necessary for medical men,—are not the means of obtaining it the same as formerly ? We are certain the impediments to this indispensa¬ ble pursuit are multiplying, and the power of the healing art to promote the health and happiness of the community must be more and more diminished, as these impediments increase. In the preamble to that celebrated law of the Old Colony of Massachusetts, passed within twenty years of the date of the first charter, providing for the support of common schools, the necessity of this enactment is stated in these remarkable words,— “ to the end that learning be not buried in the graves of our forefathersThe wisdom of our forefathers is now manifest in the general diffusion of common learning, and yet ice, their descendants, have been willing to suffer a department of knowl¬ edge no less necessary to the well-being of society