On some states which resemble inflammation / [William Brown].

  • Brown, William, 1796-1887.
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some states which resemble inflammation / [William Brown]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    c-' ' 4rv \l ■ ON SOME STATES WHICH RESEMBLE INFLAMMATION. By william BROWN, F. R. S. E., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. (Read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1st May 1839.) (From the Edin, Med. and Surg, Journal^ No, 141./ It is strange that, while the cultivators of medicine are so numerous, and their zeal and assiduity so thoroughly unwearied, it should still be a matter of question whether the art be now in a progressive state. The more general and perhaps the nearly unani¬ mous opinion is, that medicine is advancing with a steady progress to perfection, but, meanwhile, a few names, not undistinguished in science, maintain that there is no real progress, or only progres¬ sion in the circumference of a circle, that is, constant motion, but, at the same time, constant return to the position formerly occu¬ pied. Dr Francis Home, in his Treatise on Croup, published in 1765, observes that “ the science of medicine has been gradually advancing for the 2000 years bypast, and is now brought to a great degree of improvement, perhaps to as great, every circum¬ stance considered, as the difficulty of the art, the limitation of the human faculties, and the continual attempts to further refinement, too often conducted merely by fancy, will admit of.” We smile at the boast of Dr Home, and think of the improvements and dis¬ coveries since his day ; but we are as ready to plume ourselves as he was on the existing state of medicine, and we find nearly his own expressions made use of by writers of the present period. But what are the real facts of the case ? Is medicine truly pro¬ gressive, or is it stationary ? When we think of medical hypotheses, we may very readily adopt the latter opinion. We observe now the same restless search after first principles, and the same disposition to gather these from a few observations, which characterized the more ancient physi¬ cians ; and even the younger members of the society will recollect opinions started by their zealous inventors as irrefragably certain, which a very few years have first undermined and then demolish¬ ed. With regard to new diseases, do we not find hints of almost every one in the older authors, and do not the critics of the pre¬ sent day often detect in this way the plagiarism of modern disco¬ verers ? If we turn our attention to remedies, we find much to dis¬ courage our boastings. .Disease appears to be as rife as it was in former days, and our vaunted improvements in the materia medica have not made death less frequent than before, have not added to the average duration of human existence. Increased longevity has ' not yet been attained, and if there be any diminution in the rate I'iUa/p