The early history of instrumental precision in medicine : an address before the second Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, September 23rd, 1891 / by S. Weir Mitchell.

  • Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir), 1829-1914.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The early history of instrumental precision in medicine : an address before the second Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, September 23rd, 1891 / by S. Weir Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    Did 1 not observe signs of broadening in the views of specialists, I should have increasing fears as to the usefulness of these specialisa- tions of practice. Even as to the alienists, I see the growth of a tendency to put aside the title of Superintendent of Asyluni, and to come into relation with neurologists and with a less restricted pro- fessional life ; I trust they will not pause there, for as to this I am sure that, until asylums become hospitals, and have their outside staff of attending physicians who do not live in eternal contact with the insane, we shall not develop the best possibilities for the treatment of the alien in mind. Believe me, we cannot safely permit any class of specialists to drift away from general and frequent contact with the rest of us. As I have mentioned the need for continuous individual cultivation of our multiform science on a broad scale, and for personal consulta- tion, I like to enlarge the plea and call a meeting like ours a general consultation. And this, in fact, it is ; a focal point for condensed opinions, for authoritative statements, for criticism from varied stand- points, and for significant indications as to those accepted gains which ought to become, from time to time, a part of the mental equipment of all other special, and indeed of all general practitioners. I have said that nowhere else has a plan like ours brought together such a body of experts as I see before me. And the large task which the years offer you—what is it ? ]Not only is your organization excep- tional in construction, but this Congress has national aspects. It is a collection of the ablest men in the American profession. Let us not lose sight of the fact that much of what, in older lands, is acquired knowledge, is with us to be won anew. Our climatology has yet to be medically handled in full, and as to this and the relation of the seasons to disease, we are helped by the growing usefulness of our Weather Bureau. Nowhere else is there a country in which the extent of territory covered by weather reports is such as to make its results medically available in relation to disease. Even in Europe, the influence of seasons on disease has not yet been fully studied. As an evidence of its peculiar effects here, and of the value of the Weather Service reports as an aid to their study, you will recall Wharton Sinkler's interesting proof that the spinal paralysis of childhood is with us a disease of the summer months. I can but allude, also, to the masterly paper of Morris Lewis on the *' The Relation of Acute Rheumatism to the Storm Centres, and, if you will pardon me, to my own study of the Relation of Chorea to the Weather Curves, and of Traumatic Neuralgia to Storms ; all of which work were impos- sible had we not the maps and reports of the Signal Service.