The elements of medical chemistry : embracing only those branches of chemical science which are calculated to illustrate or explain the different objects of medicine, and to furnish a chemical grammar to the author's Pharmacologia / by John Ayrton Paris.

  • Paris, John Ayrton, 1785-1856.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of medical chemistry : embracing only those branches of chemical science which are calculated to illustrate or explain the different objects of medicine, and to furnish a chemical grammar to the author's Pharmacologia / by John Ayrton Paris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to <K KIALOGUL. Practitioner. If I have never known the advantages of Chemistry, i have, at least, experienced some of its evils; and I think you will admit, notwithstanding all your prejudices in its favour, that the Physiologist can have but few obligations to it; recollect only some of the numerous fallacies which have arisen from chemical theories. Author. If it be philosophical to argue against the utility of an instrument from a few instances of its abuse, I must certainly leave you in the undisturbed enjoyment of your assumed triumph; but remember the exclamation of Friar Lawrence— Virtue itself turns Vice, being misapplied. Practitioner. You acknowledge then the extent of the evils which have flowed from your favourite science. Author. Most cheerfully. Nay, I go farther, I triumph in them. Pope has somewhere said that when a man owns himself to have been in error, he does but tell you that he is wiser than he was; and you must admit that it would be truly discouraging, if the Physiologist of the present day, with all the advantages of modern discovery, were unable to- detect the errors of his predecessors. Practitioner. You will gcarcely venture to assert that the living power is not constantly opposed to chemical action. Author. And, for that reason, it is essential to learn the nature of chemical action, before we can attempt to appreciate the extent of that force which modifies or resists it. But there are changes perpetually going on in the animal hody that are beyond the control of the living principle.