Organopathy, or, Medical progress : an essay / by William Sharp, M.D.

  • Sharp, William, 1805-1896.
Date:
1867
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Organopathy, or, Medical progress : an essay / by William Sharp, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    presentation of the spirit of the age. I have been putting its truth to a practical test for some years, and am doing so still. I cannot say that the experience I have hitherto had is re-assuringj but I shall rejoice if the Essay I am now offering to the notice of my profession is received in this candid and patient manner. Less cannot be expected from Dr. Acland himself than that he will set the ex- ample. That the application of the collateral sciences to the improvement of medicine is a move in the right direction cannot be doubted. Animal chemistry is a noble pur- suit j and advantages are also to be derived from the observation of the specific gravity of fluids; from the ap- plication of acoustics in the stethoscope; of optics in the ophthalmoscope and laryngoscope; and of thermotics in the thermometer. Far be it from me to undervalue any of these sciences; they are lines of investigation worthy of being followed; but they can be of use to medicine only within their own proper limits. They may help in diagnosis, and they may now and then suggest a new remedy; but they can never teach a law of therapeutics. It is not in them to do this. On the contrary, they become hindrances and iffnes fatui when they are lifted up out of their proper and subordinate sphere. The modern medical chemists especially err in this matter; they are like their pre- decessors the alchemists in the 16th century, who sought to transmute the baser metals into gold. The aim of both is an unattainable object; as that of children who plant stones, and expect trees to grow out of them. That these sciences have failed as trustworthy guides in the treatment of disease is manifest both from the books which have been written under their dictation, and from the practice of the able men who have devoted themselves with assiduity to their cultivation. As a specimen of the books I will mention one by Dr. Owen Kees on the Diseases of the Kidney, connected