Essay upon the question, Is medical science favourable to scepticism? / by James W. Dale.

  • Dale, James W. (James Wilkinson), 1812-1881.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay upon the question, Is medical science favourable to scepticism? / by James W. Dale. 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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    through the world in individual experience. The evanescent records of tradition, or the locally beneficial Tablets of the Temple, were long their only depositories. There were no prin- ciples to guide; causes and effects were little understood; remedies were given with a hand stretched forth in the dark; beneficial results were due to the fortunate suggestions of ignor- ance, rather than to the dictates of enlightened wisdom. This period has, however, long since passed away. Medicine of that day and the present bear to each other no more analogy, than the branching tree laden with mature fruit to the shapeless germinating seed. Medicine, with conscious dignity, now seeks, and by unanimous consent occupies, a high position among the sister sciences. It has been tauntingly urged that her truths have no rigid inflexibility. When we chide the sun-beam for crookedness, because it ac- commodates itself to different media through which it passes, then may we medicine for the flexibility of her truths. Man and the agents acting on him, are as changeful as the laws of the triangle, the square, and the circle are changeless. Influences which, under the plastic power of a well tutored mind, can be moulded to meet this protean character, are of inestimable worth. To thrust into them the rigid laws of mathematics, would be as desirable as the anchylosis of every joint to remedy want of grace in movement. The legitimate boundaries of medical truth vie with those of any other science. Earth, air, and sea are held in its embrace. None can call the student of medicine an intruder, whether he descend into the earth to analyse its varied constituents, or walk through every clime to gather fruit from tree and shrub and flower, for the healing of the nations. Equal right has he to the healthful breeze that sweeps the swelling face of ocean, to bathe in its flood, or float upon its bosom. His passport bears him through the changeful winds and clouds of heaven; and bids him ponder the influence of sun and moon upon his chosen study. To these ennobling spheres of research the medical student is introduced, and privileged to tread, as well as the wards of the hospital and the chamber of domestic sickness. While labours like these give exercise to intellect of the most searching and grasping powers, the framing a shield from their results whereby to guard the hearts of men from the poignant darts of disease, employs the best affections of the soul. That a science like this should be hostile to