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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    assertion too important in its consequences, to be received without proof far more convincing than any we possess at present. It must clearly be admitted that, to refer to this essence the dis- tinctions between health and disease, to assume that in it are to be found the changes leading to such results, would be to assume a change with- out the most distant idea of the nature of that to which we refer it; possessing, in fact, not even the bare knowledge that it is capable of change. Great would be the triumph of science, could this doubt be solved; but, with our present means of knowledge, it seems far beyond our reach. In its solution, we should approach nearer, than seems to be permitted,—Him who formed this incomparable machine,—open in its organic stracture to investigation; but of which, the mainspring—that etherial essence which, ex- alting it above every other mechamsm,--consti- tutes it a living and sentient being,—that alone is hidden from our view, and from its very nature, is as httle hkely to be discovered in conjunction with the organs it animates, as by abstract rea- soning upon itself. 8