The true art of healing : a discourse on the rational system of medicine introductory to the winter session at St. Mary's Hospital delivered October 1st, 1856 / by Thomas K. Chambers.

  • Chambers, Thomas King, 1818-1889
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The true art of healing : a discourse on the rational system of medicine introductory to the winter session at St. Mary's Hospital delivered October 1st, 1856 / by Thomas K. Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    diminution now of one, nowT of another. That which modifies vital action when it is met with as an accident, will do so equally when it is deliberately inflicted. The poisonous herb which purges a man to death, will purge him less violently when given in smaller quantities ; and if he is dying for want of a purge, will save his life. This is so obvious, that I will waste no more words in illustrating the proposition, that to observe the action of physical agents on disease, may enable us to use them in such a way as to prolong life. But why do I say “ the physiological observation of the body in health V’ Are not health and disease opposed to each other? Do we not make separate studies of physi¬ ology and pathology ? And consequently while the man of science for its own sake is engaged with the normal state, is not the morbid alone the true business of the medical man ? And does not that show that one set of phenomena is exhibited here and another there ? No, it is not so. I hold it an error fatal to the useful¬ ness of our profession to do or to say anything capable of fostering the idea that the organic laws of health and disease are different, or still worse, that they are in oppo¬ sition. On the modern principle of the division of labour we have separate lecturers on physiology and pathology and on the practice of medicine, but all opportunities should be taken to inform the student that they are merely continuations of the same subject, the study of the nature of man with a view to his greater physical comfort. No one of them has a right to arrogate to himself the teaching of our art, any more than the shepherd, or the manufacturer, or the dyer, or the tailor can lay a sole claim to the adorn¬ ment of our backs. B