On the position and prospects of therapeutics : a lecture introductory to a course on materia medica and dietetics / by T. Grainger Stewart.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the position and prospects of therapeutics : a lecture introductory to a course on materia medica and dietetics / by T. Grainger Stewart. 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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    obliged to say to bis patient tbat be can afford bim no relief, tbat be must leave bim to suffer on in unabated pain. Conceive, on tbe otber band, tbe case of one wbo, from some ailment, spends tbe nigbt in a vain straining after sleep, barassed perbaps by constant pain, or kept awake by an incessant cougb; tbis patient, after nigbts of sleepless suffering, and days rendered miserable by tbe want of tbe nigbt's repose, receives from bis pbysician some simple sedative, sleeps tbe wbole nigbt tbrougb, and awakes in tbe morning witb a world of gratitude to tbe medicine wbicb bas procured bim immunity from suffering. Or again, a patient bas some inflammation of tbe skin, or a painful ulcer, and bis life is embittered by tbe irri- tation it produces—tbe pbysician applies a local seda- tive—tbe patient feels bimself a new man, and blesses tbe art wbicb bas given bim sucb relief. Wbo bas not seen tbe wretcbed victim of cancer enabled to forget for a wbile bis suffering imder tbe influence of a well-timed narcotic? or a poor consumptive lifted for a time above bis weakness by a simple stimulant ? I need not multiply examples of tbe relief wbicb medicine gives. Your daily visits to tbe surgical