An eclectic compendium of the practice of medicine / by Lyman Watkins.

  • Watkins, Lyman, 1854-
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An eclectic compendium of the practice of medicine / by Lyman Watkins. 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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    PR EFACE. ?LAIN as the teachings of the theory of Specific Medication appear to the majority of Eclectic physicians, there is yet considerable obscurity and misunderstanding upon this point in the minds of practitioners of other schools, and of the public generally. A misconception of the whole idea of Spe- cific Medication which is rife in some directions, and which leads to its discredit and condemnation, is, that we claim to have specifics for diseases, according to the popular nomen- clature, when in fact no such pretension has ever been made; and it has never been attempted to adapt the theory to certain combinations of symptoms which have received distinctive names as diseases. So far as we know there is no specific for the cure of pneumonia, or for peritonitis, or rheumatism, or any other disease. It is well known that no one given attack of disease is identical with any other attack of the same disease. Age, condition, idiosyncrasy, and environment, have a mod- ifying influence^ and the symptoms vary with these circum- stances. Specific Medication consists in adapting the treatment to the-' symptoms. We divide the force of morbid conditions and meet each separate manifestation with a remedy. As the symp- toms vary, the indicated remedies will also be varied; and