On dyspepsia : with remarks, submitted in support of the opinion that, the proximate cause of this, and of all other diseases, affecting the general system, is vitiation of the blood / by John Burdett Steward.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On dyspepsia : with remarks, submitted in support of the opinion that, the proximate cause of this, and of all other diseases, affecting the general system, is vitiation of the blood / by John Burdett Steward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    is understood, than by the variety and uncer- tainty of treatment in those cases, in which it still remains a question of doubt and debate. The author's view of the subject leads him to entertain the opinion, that the cause of this un- certainty arises in the indiscriminate rejection of the humoral pathology; by the total banish- ment of which, not only were its inconsisten- cies got rid of, but with them, unfortunately, vanished all disposition to refer to the blood as a source of disease. In later times the fear of attacking received opinions, closed to the inquirer a source of ex- planation, which held within itself the germ of truth. This widely entertained prejudice has, how- ever, gradually been receding before the light of chemistry ; and most probably the day is not far distant, when a reference to the blood as a source of disease, so far from meeting ridicule, will be viewed as the truest and best,—if not the only means of explaining its phenomena and direct- ing our treatment. These preliminary remarks render it scarcely