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

  • Sharp, William, 1805-1896.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

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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    the healing art was arrested, and the tyranny of routine established; and it is worthy of note that with this- wretched state of things the ancient public seem to have been satisfied. At a later period, in the best times of Greece, medicine was delivered from priest-craft by Hippocrates and others, and became a profession of its own. During the general decay of learning and liberty in the middle ages, it fell again into the hands of the priests; and this led to the separation, (a misfortune I think), of surgery from medicine. At the period of the Reforma- tion the treatment of the sick was again surrendered by the priests to a medical faculty; but the separation of surgery from medicine continued, and in this country was perpetuated by the charter of king Henry VIII. For about three centuries medicine has belonged to men exclusively devoted to its study and practice. It has made progress during this period, and notably in some of its branches, as anatomy, physiology, animal chemistry, and pathology. But in respect to therapeutics, or the actual treatment of the sick, this progress has been checked by two characteristics apparently opposite to and incon- sistent with each other—violent changes on the one hand, and unthinking routine on the other. Men of energy and industry have successively pushed themselves forward as leaders; so that doctrines the most contradictory, and practice the most opposite, have been in vogue, not only in succeeding ages, and in different countries, but in the same age, and in,the same country. And yet, no sooner has a teacher established a reputation, and formed a school, than routine reigns among his followers. The excuse offered for this being the authority of the master. Sometimes routine is even more unthinking than this :— a physician of some eminence lately prescribed for a patient not far from me, and on being asked why he had written the prescription, he replied, because I think it will do good. But, said the questioner, you must have. B 2