Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical disease and the diagnostic value of pain / by John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson.

  • Hilton, John, 1804-1878.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical disease and the diagnostic value of pain / by John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    systematized—i.e. w-liich. cannot be conveyed from mind to mind in books, in systematic treatises—1 had almost said, wliich cannot be given clinically, because tbe necessary grouping of like cases rarely accompanies clinical oppor- tunities; secondly, on a natural anticipation of the pro- gressive steps which might be foreseen in a scientific art cultivated with such intelligence, such laborious activity, and such an abundant supply of husbandmen as the j)resent century has jaroduced; and thirdly, on the opinion that among those who had been actively engaged for a long period in extensive hospital practice would be found a fitting exponent of surgical progress. This, gentlemen, is the conception I have adopted of the original intention of this College in instituting the short course of Lectures on Anatomy and Surgery which I have undertaken to deliver. How far I must fall short of re- sponding to that intention I need not be reminded. But I feel convinced that the attainment of even mediocrity is best secured by planting a high standard before the mind, with the determination of approaching as near to it as one has strength to do. Nor need I seriously appeal to your indulgence for the manner of expressing my views. I am sure that many of my listeners will readily ajDpreciate the facilis descensus by which an habitual lecturer to students, whom he can presume to instruct, may be betrayed into treating an audience, whose high reputation and whose pro- fessional knowledge far exceed his own, as if he presumed to instruct them also. Nor is it necessary that I crave your consideration for my embarrassment in the selection of words and phrases appropriate to the ideas which I intend to convey. Nam neque chorda sorrnm reddit, quern vult, manus, et mens, Poscentique gravem perssspe remittit acutum ; Nec semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus. Hoe. Ars Poet. 348 et seq. But, gentlemen, phraseology and diction have been to me minor considerations in comparison with the anxiety of choosing a subject which would be fitting for hearers so distinguished in their profession. From time to time, you have listened with admiration to my predecessors in this chair, as they expounded to you the more recent advance