Lectures on the principles of surgical diagnosis : especially in relation to shock and visceral lesions : delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by F. Le Gros Clark.

Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the principles of surgical diagnosis : especially in relation to shock and visceral lesions : delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by F. Le Gros Clark. 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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    might shrink from its performance, I did not feel myself at liberty to decline. The natural alliance which exists between Anatomy and Surgery invests their combined pursuit with a peculiar interest to both student and teacher—a circumstance which is readily intelligible when we bear in mind that the lessons imparted and acquired are applied knowledge; and most learners have a greater aptitude in the acquisition of such information than in learning the rudiments of a science, the application of which they must defer until the details are mastered. And it is assuredly more agreeable to teach such practical application of facts, than to dwell on abstractions, which fail to fix the attention of the majority of students. I do not mean by these observations to imply that anatomy is to be studied solely in subserviency to surgery, or that my remarks are not applicable, though in a minor degree, to other branches of professional study. In many of our pursuits, from the earliest period of education, it is requisite to instil the habit of patiently waiting until lapse of time shall unfold the cui bono of our work ; but, in anatomy, I apprehend that the practical application of what is learned cannot be incul- cated too soon. The subject on which I have elected to address you is so comprehensive, and constitutes so important a section of medical science, that I think it excusable to devote my first lecture to the consideration of some circumstances which appear to me to have an influential bearing on its successful study and pursuit. The diagnosis of disease is the chief end and purpose of clinical instruction, and continues to be culti- vated by the scientific practitioner with unrelaxing earnestness throughout his career. The natural and fitting tendency of all scientific research is the development of principles or laws ; and this result is pro- moted, though not actually attained, by the grouping and classification of the fruits of observation. The attractiveness
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