Prize essay, Rational therapeutics, or the comparative value of different curative means, and the principles of their application / by Worthington Hooker.

  • Hooker, Worthington, 1806-1867.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prize essay, Rational therapeutics, or the comparative value of different curative means, and the principles of their application / by Worthington Hooker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    change in the character of any particular diseases, and from one season to another; but it is a change covering a long term of years, and in the general diathesis of disease. This, it is asserted, is much more disposed to be asthenic than it was in the days of active medication. The fact, so distinctly observed by Sydenham, that epidemic diseases thus change from year to year, from modification of some of the concur- rent causes that produce them, has been well established by the observation of physicians since his time. But the change under consideration is altogether different from this : it is a change which could not be produced, unless a con- tinuous influence of some considerable power were exerted during a series of years, alike in healthy and unhealthy seasons, when epidemics were rife, and when they were mild, or even absent, modifying the action of the common causes of disease, so as to alter its general character in all its forms. And, besides, to effect so great a change as has been asserted, so abruptly and so thoroughly, some alteration in the very character of the human system would seem to be required. It appears clear, then, from these considerations, in addi- tion to the fact that the reality of the change is matter of dispute, that there cannot have been an alteration in the gene- ral diathesis of diseases, sufficient to account for the great and general change in medical practice that we have witnessed in the past twenty-five or thirty years. During the reign of active medication, there were great strifes in the profession. The most opposite modes of prac- tice were advocated in the treatment of the same disease, and physicians were often divided into fiercely opposing parties. I will refer to but a single example. In the first quarter of this century, there was in New England a great contest between two rival parties, in relation to the general character of diseases and their treatment. Dr. Gallup and his followers maintained that diseases were almost wholly sthenic or inflammatory, and therefore depleting remedies were called for; and, of these, bleeding was by far the most