God in disease, or, The manifestations of design in morbid phenomena / by James F. Duncan.

  • Duncan, James F. (James Foulis), 1812-1895.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: God in disease, or, The manifestations of design in morbid phenomena / by James F. Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    technical symbols, wMcli possess an air of mystery, in place of tlie figures and terms in ordinary use, to express the quantities of drugs that are di- rected in the prescriptions; the invention of new and scientific names for common diseases, instead of the older and more familiar appellations, are all only so many efforts to conceal matters which it is not thought desirable for the patient to be acquainted with. The great success of empirical pretenders to medical skill, a success too notorious to be questioned, depends princi- pally upon the care which they take to conceal effectually from every one, but especially from the party immediately concerned, the nature and composition of the remedies they employ. ]Now, if it be a matter of importance, in the treat- ment of ordinary disease, to conceal from the patient the course that is necessary to be pur- sued for his recovery, and that it is so is esta- blished beyond the possibihty of doubt, can it be a matter of surprise, that the great Physician, in'dealing with a more delicate and dangerous state of things, should find it necessary to adopt a simi- lar reserve, in reference to the remedies he chooses to employ, and to the necessity for their adoption? And if the experience of every-day life shows us that we can be induced, unreservedly, to place confidence in a fellow-creature, who is frail and falhble like ourselves, so as to follow his prescrip-