An introduction to the study of medicine : a lecture delivered at the opening of the medical session of 1871-72, in King's College, London / by William Rutherford, M.D.

  • Rutherford, William, 1839-1899.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of medicine : a lecture delivered at the opening of the medical session of 1871-72, in King's College, London / by William Rutherford, 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.

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    ing upon the knowledge gained by a study of phy- siology and pathology you will be in a position to study practical medicine, that is, you will be able to compre- hend the means which are employed with a view to preserve an individual in the physiological or healthy state, and those which are adopted in order to rescue him from the pathological or diseased condition; or, to speak in technical language, you will study Hygiene, that department of practical medicine which concerns itself with the prevention of disease, and Therapeutics, that department which deals with the cure of disease. Physiology and pathology, hygiene and therapeutics, these are the four essential pillars upon which rest the science and the art of medicine. These subjects are of such vast extent that they are for convenience subdivided and discussed under numerous titles; you will not, however, get confused amid the labyrinth which has resulted from their sub- division if you remember what the fundamental subjects are. Without a doubt no department of natural science presents to the student more glittering points of fascina- tion than that which deals with the phenomena pre- sented by living things. The exquisite beauty and marvellous variety exhibited by the endless forms of vegetable and animal being, the strange affinities which exist between the different individuals, the perfection that marks the simplest and the most complicated structures which they possess, the excessive ingenuity of the arrangements by which they keep themselves alive, by which some of them move, hear, see, think,