Lord Lister : his life and work / by G.T. Wrench.

  • Guy T. Wrench
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lord Lister : his life and work / by G.T. Wrench. 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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    symptoms of disease were the evidence of the anger of the Archaeus, the fever was the heat of his anger, the secretions poured out were his attempt to soothe injured or irritated tissue. In this form van Helmont expressed the central vitality and the local vitalities of the body which Lister so admirably demonstrated and in which he found the final clues to the mystery of disease. Between van Helmont and Lister nothing was added to the fundamental philosophy of disease, though detailed knowledge was much increased. I cannot, therefore, bring this brief Introduction to a close in a better manner than by quoting; the prayer of van Helmont, which he uttered in despair after finishing his review of medicine and the terrible prevalence of disease : O merciful God, how long wilt Thou be angry with man, that Thou hast not revealed one truth to Thy students in healing? Is this Moloch sacrifice pleasing to Thee, and wilt Thou that the lives of the poor, of widows, and of children, be con- tinually offered up to Thee in miserable torments of incurable diseases or through the carelessness and ignorance of physicians ? The prayer was not uttered in vain, and that it was not uttered in vain has been due, under Providence, to the life and work of Lord Lister. 13
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