An inaugural dissertation, upon the action of cold, upon the human body, and its application to the cure of diseases : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees and Medical Faculty, of the University of Pennsylvania, on the tenth of April, 1807 : for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Robert Miller, of Virginia.

  • Miller, Robert, 1792-1857.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation, upon the action of cold, upon the human body, and its application to the cure of diseases : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees and Medical Faculty, of the University of Pennsylvania, on the tenth of April, 1807 : for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Robert Miller, of Virginia. 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.)

    19/38
    Upon an attentive consideration of the arguments alledged in support of cold being a stimulant, I think it will be found, that they are more formidable in ap- pearance, than in reality. The plastic power of the pen of ingenuity, has given an air of importance to the opinion, to which it certainly is not entitled. With this I finish what I have to say relative to the modus operandi of cold. I have to regret that the sea* son of the year, the short time allowed for preparing a dissertation, and my weak state of health, precluded the possibility of my making such experiments as were necessary to do greater justice to this part of my subject. I now proceed to speak of the application of cold to the cure of diseases, which part of my subject I shall enter on with extreme diffidence because my experi- nce has been very limited. Cold is an ancient remedy. It was employed by Hippocrates and Galen, but like many good old reme- dies it went out of fashion for a great many years. It has not however escaped the enlightened physicians of the present day, by whom it has been rescued from un- deserved neglect. Those who have been ^most insrtumental in reviving this valuable remedy, had to combat much opposition from ^popular ignorance and popular prejudice. But over these, science and truth are gaining a rapid ascen- dency. For establishing and greatly extending the application of cold to the cure of diseases, the world is indebted more perhaps to the labours of the learned Dr. Currie of Liverpool, than to any other person. Scarcely I think, can any thing be added to what that able writer has given us on the use of cold in Typhus fever, small pox and a few other diseases.