Glossology, or, The additional means of diagnosis of disease to be derived from indications and appearances of the tongue : read before the Senior Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, 4th November, 1843 / by Benjamin Ridge.

  • Ridge, Benjamin, 1807-1889.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Glossology, or, The additional means of diagnosis of disease to be derived from indications and appearances of the tongue : read before the Senior Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, 4th November, 1843 / by Benjamin Ridge. 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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    art of medicine, as it affects the well-being of the com- munity at large, should hold a high place and dignified position in human affars; but never, unfortunately, was charlatanism^ more rampant than in this day, both at home and abroad. For myself, I would willingly hold any doctrine, and follow it out, which promises to benefit my fellow-creatures, if it be founded on truth, and upheld by philosophy; but where this is not the case, I will not be guided by the general clamour in its favour, but will follow after truth in my own way. Many remarks have been made to me from which I have derived encouragement. One said he had had pointed out to him that, when the edges of the anterior part of the tongue were marked by the lower teeth, they indicated a dyspeptic state of the stomach. A second said, a friend had noticed to himself a costive condition of the bowels to be indicated by clusters of papillae on the tip of the tongue. A third, and, by the way, a non-medical man, said he always found when he had headach that the edges of his tongue were serrated or rugous. These observa- tions, professional and non-professional, strengthened my views, and led me to count on those who made them as Glossologists without knowing it, who might soon become so upon principle. I shall be greatly pleased if this sort of single observation runs through all the tests and trials of the doctrine. To those who have never observed these appearances, they will, of course, be strange, and hard to understand; and to those who do not wish to understand them harder still. To those who doubt the value of a