A treatise of incurable diseases: containing, I. An essay on the proper means to reduce the number of incurables. II. An attempt to settle a just notion of incurable in physick. III. A specimen of a rational method to discover the cures of reputed incurable diseases / [Peter Shaw].

  • Shaw, Peter, 1694-1763
Date:
1723
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise of incurable diseases: containing, I. An essay on the proper means to reduce the number of incurables. II. An attempt to settle a just notion of incurable in physick. III. A specimen of a rational method to discover the cures of reputed incurable diseases / [Peter Shaw]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ( [ to ] Remedies^ is here the only rational and promising means we have left. : • ti It will furely be granted, that the prefent pradice of Phyfick is im- provcable, if it be confider’d, that the feveral Branches of which this Art is compos’d, are daily improving 5 whilft new difcoverics are made in A- natomy, and Chirurgery grows more compleat 5 whilft Chymiftry and Phar¬ macy furnifh us with new Preparations, and Mechanicks is more fucceff- fully applied to the animal Strudure 5 it cannot be doubted but fome ufe may be made of thefe Things to the advantage of Phyfick, and the cure of repiited incurable Difeafes. There is no room to queftion, that many powerful Remedies lye now abfeonded, or enveloped in their firft Prin¬ ciples, if it be confider’d, that the whole Set we are at this time ac¬ quainted with, were once in the fame ftate of Darknefs and Confufion. Let us but refled, that Agues were reputed incurable till the Cortex was found, and itsUfes known, as well as the Lues Vtnerea till Mercury, and the Woods were applied j and confider by what means not only thefe, but numberlefs other ufefui Medicines were obtain’d ; and then there will be very great Encouragement to exped, that if diligent fearch were made, and the proper Experiments inftituted, many grand Remedies might be difclofed, and fuch as wou d be of force fufficient to cure fome Difeafes which now lye under the unjuft Sentence of Incurable. Nor is this the only reafon we have to hope for fuch a Redrefs in the ArtofHealing,andaconftderableRedudionof the prefent Incurables : great Afliftance may in this cafe be likewife obtain’d from a due management of the Remedies we are already pofiefs’d of. For there are fo many Requifites neceflary to advance thefe to their higheft Power, that it may very well be queftioned, if the utmoft force they are capable of affording, was ever exerted on the caufe of any Difeafe. Chymiftry has improv’d the Efficacy of many Medicaments, and fhewn them to have fuch Virtues, as were utterly unknown before that Art be¬ came general: And Fire is an Element from which other as great Matters may be juftly expeded. Befides this, an inverted Order, a well propor¬ tion’d Dofe, a proper preparation of the Body and Medicine, a right Choice, a