Pathological observations, Part I. on dropsy, purpura and the influenza of the latter end of the year 1822, and beginning of that of 1823; and particularly on the morbid changes of the blood, and their influence on the production and course of the diseases, illustraled [sic] by select cases and dissections / by William Stoker ...

Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological observations, Part I. on dropsy, purpura and the influenza of the latter end of the year 1822, and beginning of that of 1823; and particularly on the morbid changes of the blood, and their influence on the production and course of the diseases, illustraled [sic] by select cases and dissections / by William Stoker ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    degree, mark the extent of the evils that sprung from its abuse, and the consequent discredit into which it has latterly fallen. “ The new light “ (he adds) which was thrown upon the animal “ economy by this important discovery/* (the circulation of the blood) “ served only to redou- “ ble the rage of systems. Nothing else was “ thought of but to cause the blood to circulate “ more freely, to destroy its viscosity, to draw off “ from the body that which was supposed to be <c corrupted, to purify it, correct it and renew “ and to preserve the blood-vessels in a re- “ laxed and pervious state. Hence those torrents of aqueous and diluent drinks, with which “ Bontekoe and his adherents inundated their patients. Hence that sanguinary fury, which the partisans of Botalli thought themselves “ entitled to exercise in their treatment of all “ sorts °f diseases;—a fury which, though so “ often damped, in some measure, by systematic “ murders, has ceased only for intervals, and still “ from time to time reappears in the schools. ‘ Hence too, that wretched mania of the trans- “ fusion of blood, of which the practice almost al- “ waYs deprived those who had the temerity to subject themselves to so dangerous an operation, of their life, or their reason.** 1 his extract is intended to shew how one of the most beautiful discoveries of modern medi- cine was misapplied, and that far from elucidating B 2