An address delivered in the theatre of the Meath Hospital at the opening of the session of 1847-48 / by William Stokes.

  • Stokes, William, 1804-1878.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address delivered in the theatre of the Meath Hospital at the opening of the session of 1847-48 / by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dissolution,—saved by the vigorous and judicious use of means as simple as they are powerful. I repeat it,— it is in the treatment of fever that the light of medi¬ cine shines with the brightest and broadest lustre. Its study will give you confidence, and confidence thus ob¬ tained will insure success. But you will learn more. You will be taught to respect the laws of disease, and to estimate the powers of nature. You will learn when to interfere, and when to stand by and do nothing,—a particular example of moral courage, which you will do well to accustom your¬ selves to,—for, if there be one quality more dangerous than another in the character of a medical man, it is that which, springing from want of confidence in his own knowledge and powers, leads him continually to interfere with nature, or the effects of his remedies. This is medical cowardice. There are other advantages, too, connected with the study of fever, most important to all medical stu¬ dents, and particularly to the student of surgery. The latter has had his mind too much occupied with one idea of disease. In the elementary books which he studies, in the lectures he attends, and in the wards he frequents, he reads of, hears of, sees almost nothing but inflammation and its consequences ; and when he comes, in after life, to deal with disease in general, he often finds it impossible to change his ideas of patho¬ logy. Some men of well-trained observing and rea¬ soning powers, after a season of experience, too often dearly bought, change imperceptibly their opinions, and adopt better views. Others never do so, never