Report of the fourteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical & Surgical Association, held at Norwich, Aug. 19 and 20, 1846. President John Green Crosse.

Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the fourteenth anniversary meeting of the Provincial Medical & Surgical Association, held at Norwich, Aug. 19 and 20, 1846. President John Green Crosse. 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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    persist, or any one of them be brought to the position of a science worthy of general support, will, I trust, scarcely be admitted by the present enlightened assembly. Theories are unavoidable, and where they are honestly embraced and used, to a certain extent desirable, and may even prove useful; but were the great body of the profession,—nay, were any prepon- derating number of this large Association,—to become captivated with any delusive doctrine, and to merge into the fanaticism of the day, we should be driven back to the dark ages of our history, denominated by a learned professor dje stationary period of the inductive sciences, “when experiments were replaced by commentators, criticism took the place of induction, and instead of great discoveries we had learned men.” One of the possible advantages which may arise from homoeopathy is, that it will afford opportunity for observ- ing the natural course,of diseases, and be a check to over active treatment in doubtful cases. In our difficult calling, whenever art does violence to nature, the apparent good is as an artificial fountain, that can be kept up only for a time ; the more you consult the innate restorative powers of the constitution, the more surely will ^ progress towards recovery, once commenced, flow on in a smooth current, like a natural rivulet, till health is restored. I must now enter upon topics still more serious and grave,yet which it would not be allowable to pass over in silence. The Hippocratic remark, that “ life is short,” may be applied most emphatically to gentlemen of the medical profession, who on an average live for fewer years than members of the other learned professions, notwithstanding the advantage the former might be expected to possess in a knowledge of the first ap- proaches of disease, and of their causes, with the means of prevention. It is difficult to state, in few B