Chemical and medical researches on kreosote : its preparation, properties, and use / by E. Miguet ; translated from the French by William Wetherill.

  • Miguet, E.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemical and medical researches on kreosote : its preparation, properties, and use / by E. Miguet ; translated from the French by William Wetherill. 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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    PREFACE, When a new medicinal preparation makes its appearance, it soon finds violent panegyrists, and many ready to cast obloquy upon it. Quackery is exercised so shamefully on public credulity by the pompous names given to substances, the virtues of which in general are but doubtful, that the conscientious practitioner is cautious against all medical innovation. This scepticism has become neces- sary, since the journals are daily filled with pompous praises in favour of many medical substances which have been mentioned, time out of mind, in our dispensatories, and others in which the fecula of potatoes, or the chocolate nut are the principal constituents. The most inert powders are extolled and highly spoken of, by men unacquainted with the art of healing, having no fixed establishment for their sale. Men of sense laugh at such impudent shamelessness; but the credulous, confiding in what is told them, judge blindly, and being governed by others, are caught by the bait. The interest which the informed are at this time taking in Kreo- sote, and the researches which have multiplied themselves from all directions, have been a sufficient motive to determine me to make this article the subject of my especial study; but above all, I feel it my duty to cast off prejudice, and set aside systems, in conformity with the precepts of Bacon, who looked upon a patient as being in great danger, when a physician approached him with a fixed system in his head. I do not wish to write a panegyric upon, nor do I wish to detract from the virtues of Kreosote; I do not say, as Berkley speaks of the wonderful virtues of the water of tar, of which this is the active principle, that it cures all diseases; I should be in as ridiculous a situation as the poet, of whom Horace has so pleasantly said, Quid dignum tanto feret hie promissor hiatu. My intention is to offer a series of facts, calculated to make clear hereafter its administration by the light of experience; to this end,