Contributions to physical and medical knowledge, principally from the West of England / collected by Thomas Beddoes.

Date:
1799
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to physical and medical knowledge, principally from the West of England / collected by Thomas Beddoes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    '3 By the indolent and the ill-informed I fliall perhaps be told that our hofpitals arc already in able hands and that every thing ufeful to the prefent age and to pofterity will be faithfully recorded: Confequently that no good can accrue from the cumberfome regulations I propofe. But I, who could name a variety of hofpitals, which in a long courfe of years have furniflied nothing or next to nothing t to medical philofophy, muft be flow to believe in this uni- verfal vigilance. To many of our predecefibrs and many of our contemporaries the healing art is indeed deeply indebted for what they have recorded of their hofpital pra6tice. Nor would I defire a more conclufive argument. For if a partis fo valuable, what would the whole be ? And what, accordingto a juft eftimation, are the fa6ts that have been preferved, but fragments of a mighty wreck, demonftrating the value of the mafs that has periflied ? The profeffion and the public being fo far excited, the reft would eafily follow. No remarkable phaenomenon in private praftice would remain unexamined and unauthen- ticated. Curiofity would have every where free fcope : cxercife would immenfely improve the talent for obferva>r tion 5 and no gre^ improvement in the talent for obferva- tion can take place, without a proportionate increafe of fuc- cefs in praftice. Some readers may find it difficult to believe either that there is fuch a deficiency ofphyfiological fai^s as I infinuate, or that an addition to the number would be cheaply pur- chafed by any efforts and almoft any facrifice. But thefe feeptics fhould be reminded that fcience improves juft as fa6ts