Foundation for a new theory and practice of medicine / by Thomas Inman.

  • Inman, Thomas, 1820-1876.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Foundation for a new theory and practice of medicine / by Thomas Inman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    PREFACE. From the period of his reading the first book on the Theory and Practice of Medicine which was presented to his notice, the Author has been struck with the absence of all trustworthy principles in such works. They contain descriptions of disease more or less accurate ; they detail the symptoms which are to be looked for ; they give names to certain groups of morbid phenomena; they classify the various complaints according to one standard or another; they speculate upon the causation of disease, and they give an account of what they consider to be the best method of cure. But on the broad principles upon which that treat- ment is to be conducted they are absolutely silent,—or if they do give reasons, such are based upon presumed experi- ence and dogmatic teaching, and not upon a rigorous appeal to nature. From this category, however, the Author must exclude the recent work of Dr. J. H. Bennett, whose philo- sophical precision he fully appreciates and warmly admires. Disease in such treatises is looked upon as if it were an entity, and the prevalent metaphor is, that it invades the body, and must be overcome and driven out. Medicines are spoken of as weapons or remedies ; and “ a powerful remedy” is a name given to one, whose onslaught upon a disease is reckoned as energetic as that of the disease upon the body.