The institutes of medicine / by Martyn Paine.

Date:
1867
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The institutes of medicine / by Martyn Paine. 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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    nothing for myself which I do not yield to others. If there be minor imperfections I would gladly know them. Many of the original doc- trines which appear in this work are presented in various connections in the Medical and Physiological Commentaries. The spirit of the Commentaries will pervade the Institutes, as being, in my judgment, the only stable foundation.* \,b. In the farther prosecution of this work it will still be my object to speak of such errors as have usurped the rights or blighted the interests of rational medicine. It is not now the time for a simjde expression of facts, of experience, and of philosophical doctrines. The errors which surround them must be also exposed and refuted, or the foe of truth, or the ambitious aspirant, or the lover of indolence, will gain something from an indulgence which they know how to seek and appropriate. Nor is any one more aware of the tendencies of free discussion or unsparing of physiologists than he who has been most successful in the propagation of error, or who would sooner stifle inquiry into factitious systems. Thus, it is said by Liebig, that “ It is too frequently forgotten by physiologists that their duty really is, not to refute the experiments of others, nor to show that they arc erroneous, but to discover truth, and that alone.”—Liebig’s Organic Chemistry applied to Physiology, Sfc. Now this obvious sophistry betrays its motive, since it is utterly at variance with the habits of him who would enjoin the fiction upon others. Truth should be, indeed, the ultimate object of pursuit; but the first and most important step toward its attainment is the removal of obstacles that may lie in its way (§ 820). It is allowed, indeed, by one of Liebig’s most zealous advocates, the editor of the London Lancet, that “ the removal of error claims a place next to the establish- ment of truth (Dec., 1844); and it has grown into a proverb, that ‘‘ it is more difficult to subdue a prejudice than to build a pyramid.” Although, therefore, the contemplated method must be sometimes argumentative and controversial, it has the advantage of leading more immediately to a knowledge of the truth upon disputed questions, than any other which is not demonstrative. There can be no doubt, indeed, that the “establishment of truth” in medical philosophy can be effected only by a simultaneous refutation of the errors which sur- round it. The mind will not surrender a favorite doctrine, however false, to the force of tnith alone. Even its practical disasters, as Ave every where witness, are an inadequate demonstration. But, when error and truth are presented in forcible contrast, it is the pride of reason to embrace the latter. What is also important, the reader will have been presented, as in the Commentaries, with the great rival doctrines in medicine, and in their pi'oper relations to each other (§ 3501). 2, a. The Institutes of Medicine are natural inductions of principles and laws from the healthy and morbid phenomena of living beings. They relate to Physiology, Pathology, and Therapeutics, and to noth- ing else. All other systems, therefore, must be spurious. The sub- stitutes have no depth, no principle, no laws, and are recommended alone by their naked simplicity. “ Gentlemen,” says Bacon, “nature is a labyrinth, in which tlie very haste with -which you move will make you lose your way.” 2, b. The immediate objects of physiology are a critical analysis of * The author Ims seen, no reason to modify' this statement, in.ado twenty years ago. —18‘!7.