Curative medicine, or, Purgation, directed against the cause of diseases : discovered by Doctor Pelgas, acknowledged and analyzed in this work / by Doctor Leroy ... Translated from the 12th ed., by Gabriel Paul ... To which is added, the opinion of Doctor Renard.

  • Le Roy, Louis, active 1820
Date:
1830
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curative medicine, or, Purgation, directed against the cause of diseases : discovered by Doctor Pelgas, acknowledged and analyzed in this work / by Doctor Leroy ... Translated from the 12th ed., by Gabriel Paul ... To which is added, the opinion of Doctor Renard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    wars and plagues put together, the same error of attributing the cause of disease to blood, has introduced the disgusting use of leeches. Blood is the fluid refined by nature, and being the mover of life, it always tends to its refinement. This circulating principle is not, and cannot be the cause of any pains, and less so of unnatural death. But according to the wrong ideas entertained, it would be the carrier of those matters which produces disease and death? From what we have said upon the cause of diseases, it is impossible not to discover that they have their seat, their principle, in the stom- ach and in the intestines, and from these, as the smoke from a crater, spring the humours and their serosity, to filtrate with the blood in the passages of circulation. It is then sensible, that blood draws also its origin from the same ventricle—and, (as we have said before,) this fluid tending always to its refinement, cannot mix with any impure matter. On the contrary, it constantly tries to disengage itself from them; and it is because they are in its way, or are deposited by it, that health is impaired. We might say, that blood chooses the most convenient part of the body to disengage its motion, and for that pur- pose, conformably to the laws of circulation, prefers a cavity. From the place where that deposit has been made, and from the name which every part of the human body has received, is derived the name given to every disease. But when the corruption has acquired a certain degree, and the humoural serosity is corroded enough to stop the circulation of the blood in the beginning of the disease, the pa- tient dies without giving time to find a name for the disease of which he is the victim. Oh! how much more important it is, to apply a prompt remedy, than to lose precious time in finding illusory denom- inations. The means which this method indicates are infallible, if ap- plied in time. We must, from our own conviction, notice as an error not only pre- judicial, but even dangerous, the kind of identity which it is suppos- ed the humours have with the blood. Reason, supported by experi- ments, will never admit that those matters are the source or primi- tive cause of that fluid, little known to this day. One might as well undertake to prove that the dregs are the productive cause of wine, and that the one is identified with the other, We think that dregs are useful to a certain degree. So are the humours as long as they keep their soft and beneficial qualities, but as soon as corruption takes place, and they become putrified, they are not only useless but destroy the cause of animation. Then never suffer a drop of blood to be taken from you. Evacuate the humours as often and as long as they are degenerated, or as long as you are sick. In following this principle, there is no doubt but the medical art would be the most useful and beneficial institution—health being the most precious of all gifts. But the generality of men are preju- diced against any thing simple in itself, against truths drawn from na- ture. Pride in some, in others ill-timed respect for custom and ad-
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