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
Catalogue details

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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    while that of Fleischmann's is 6.4 per cent, — about one- third more. The mortality of the English military hospitals is even less than that of the provincial hospitals, — only two per cent.1 Having thus definitely settled the question, whether active medication is of any value, we come to another inquiry of a much more complex character; viz., Of how much value is it ? or, in other words, What are the limits of its applica- bility ? And another inquiry also is naturally coupled with this; viz., What are the principles which should guide us in fixing on the due limitations of positive medication in indi- vidual cases of disease ? These inquiries are not only complex, but difficult; and hence they are not fairly met by the great body of the pro- fession. The rigid investigation which is requisite for this is unwelcome to those who are fond of the easy path of theoretical practice, or the easier one of routine; and the principles which should guide such an investigation have really been but imperfectly developed, and can for the most part only be gleaned here and there from the standard works of the profession. I shall endeavor, in the following pages, to evolve from the experience of medical men answers to the inquiries which I have stated. For this purpose, I shall examine some of the l Dr. Gairdner, as quoted by Dr. Simpson, remarks of Fleischmann's hospital, If I were to give a formula for the management of a hospital designed to exhibit a low rate of mortality, it would be this: Choose your site well; let it be not%n but near a large city, having already hospital accommodation on a prodigious scale, well known to the poorest classes of the community, and adapted to their wants - let the distance from the centre be such (say three miles) as will keep back the extremely abject and the dangerously diseased, either through want o( knowledge of your institution, or want of power to reach it; let the arrangements be so perfect as to contrast favorably with the older hospitals, and to attract the valetudinarians, whose illnesses and means permit them to avail themselves of its superior accom- modation; and, finally, let some special practice be pursued, in order to enlist the sympathies of rich or idle dilettanti, who will know how to till your wards with the sort, of cases suitable for your experiment. This is precise^ the picture of the Vienna Homoeopathic hospital, which has the amazing effrontery to call on us to compare its peddling eaperimenta with the great labors of pure benefi- cence, of which general hospitals of this and other countries furnish examples/'