Roswell Park

“ Fever was a salutary effort of the soul to preserve the body; this was true even of intermittents, and, accordingly, he never gave cinchona. He scorned anatomy and physiology, saying, in one place, that medicine had profited as much by the knowledge of the bones in the ear as by a knowledge of snow which had fallen ten years previously. But Stahl was one of the most eminent chemists of the age, and did a great deal to liberate chemistry from the glamour of alchemy and the domination of pharmacy, and to transform it into an independent science. ”

“ One naturally inquires, then, what was the source of the wide-spread fame of Salerno as a school, since it was distinguished neither by notable discovery in science nor by celebrated teachers, and the predominant element was doubtless one of obstinate conservatism and unswerving devotion to ancient doctrines. Founded during the dark period of the Middle Ages, at a time when ignorance, bigotry, and superstition prevailed, it preserved, amidst the gloom that had settled upon Europe, a few rays of that intellectual light which had shown so brightly in the golden ages of Roman history. ”

“ Reverence for the true, the beautiful, and the good has characterized physicians in all times and climes. But little of the true, the beautiful, or the good crept into the transactions of the Church for many centuries, and we suffer, to-day, more from its interference in time past than from all other causes combined. The same may be said of theology, which is as separate from religion as darkness from light. Only when students of science emancipated themselves from the prejudices and superstitions of the theologians did medicine make more than barely perceptible progress. ”

“ They evince more of humanity, more of real interest and care in their patients, and more consideration for their comfort and welfare; while, in all that pertains to fertility of invention, to originality of performance, and accuracy of work, they, as a rule, excel. Divested of glamour, American surgery, both general and special, is ahead of most of that which one can see abroad, and the therapeutics of the American profession certainly surpass those of any other nationality. ”

“ It is Greece which furnishes us with the most interesting and the most significant remains of the history of medicine during antiquity, as she furnishes every other art with the same historical advantages. ”

“ This has been indeed a great misfortune, for men have been misled by the need for cultivation of their hands, or their manual powers, and have been persuaded away from a finer study of fundamental principles upon which the whole practice of dentistry should be based. And so it has happened that men have been so ambitious to become perfect operators that they have neglected anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and pathology, have even neglected odontology, sacrificing everything else to their work as mere artificers. ”

“ Two sons are well known in medicine to-day, and two more have achieved reputation as singers,—a circumstance which the father embodied in the bon mot that "two of his sons howled and two of them healed." He transplanted into Vienna the tendency of the earliest pathologico-anatomical school, which captivated all by its novelty and interest, and in the post-mortem room and the clinical-lecture room he converted medicine in Germany to the realism of the nineteenth century. He was, indeed, the Van Swieten of his time in his influence upon educational affairs. ”

“ The excuse for stating these things, which apparently do not so closely concern the history of medicine, must be that of the learned interpreter of the doctrine of Cuvier, that "The first question in science is always a question of method."
Hippocrates formed a transition between a period of mythology and that of history. His doctrine was received by contemporaries and by posterity with a veneration akin to worship. No other man ever obtained homage so elevated, constant, and universal. ”

“ The great field of medicine is now altogether too vast, and the various branches which pertain to it are too complex, to permit a mastery of all its details by any one mind. The man does not live who to-day can be considered facile princeps in more than a few departments of medicine. Life is too short to permit of it, and the study is altogether too extensive. There is also a growing public demand for specialization of work, and there is probably more excuse for the perpetuation of dentistry as a specialty than for almost any other branch. ”

“ The eclectic of our day, however, is only an empiric in disguise,—that is, a man whose opinions are based on comparison of observed facts, but whose theoretical ideas do not go beyond phenomena.
In older days philosophy embraced the whole of human knowledge, and the philosopher was not permitted to be unacquainted with any of its branches. Now physics, metaphysics, natural history, etc., are arranged into separate sciences, and the sum-total of knowledge is too great to be compassed by any one man. ”

“ The man of genius and courage, who accepted the truth of what his eyes revealed to him, and who was the true reformer in anatomy, was Andreas Vesalius, born at Brussels, in 1514, of a family already illustrious in medicine. He studied at the University of Louvain, where he early revealed the inclinations of the anatomist, since in his leisure moments he was wont to amuse himself in dissecting small animals. ”

“ The principle of endoscopy,—the illumination and visual examination of the various cavities of the human body,—the various specula, the spectroscope, the sphygmograph, the more accurate record of physical sounds, the application of electricity, and the employment of thermometry represent a few of the strides in the medical science of the present century, thereby aiding and perfecting the art of diagnosis, which, in turn, must ever necessarily form the basis for all rational treatment. Let no one complain that we are still so far from certainty in every case ”

“ One of the most notable events in the history of medicine was the introduction of the systematic practice of preventive inoculation against small-pox. It is so generally taught that this is entirely due to the efforts of Jenner—or, rather, we are so often allowed to think it, without being taught otherwise—that the measure deserves an historical sketch. The communication of the natural disease to the healthy, in order to afford protection,—or, in other words, the communication of small-pox to prevent the same,—reaches back into antiquity. ”

“ Skoda was the first for whom was created, in Vienna, a specialty after the French model,—that is, a special division for patients suffering from thoracic diseases. Great as he was, we must yet lay it up against him that through his influence,—first in Vienna and afterward throughout Germany,—practical medicine degenerated into simple diagnosis, and that, by his observations on the natural course of disease, undisturbed by therapeutics, he became the founder and exponent of expectant or nihilistic therapeutics,—the harbinger of a very cheerless period in the history of medicine. ”

“ We find in medicine, as in other branches of knowledge, that each succeeding century presents its added quota of imperishable facts, making it still more important than its predecessor. We may say that the fifteenth century had prepared the way for a reforming idealism which was the principal characteristic of the sixteenth; and that in the seventeenth century the realistic reaction against this same idealism showed itself in the church and the State by struggles against constituted authority, and in medical science by the domination of inductive philosophy. ”

“ One of the results of the French fondness for pathological anatomy was an outgrowth, unfortunate in some respects, of specialism, which made its appearance early and spread to other countries, particularly to Germany, so that to-day there is scarcely an organ in the body which has not only its special student, but its special representative in medicine. It would be of interest to go over some of the various organs and count those who have become most renowned in the study of their diseases, but that is beyond the scope of this volume. ”

“ Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent lithotomist and lithotritist; and Sir Spencer Wells, Keith, Lawson Tait, and Bantock, whose names are inseparable from the history of abdominal surgery. And what can be said of the young men who are being trained in the methods and practice of their predecessors—trained not only in the direction of manual dexterity, but in experimental science, to which they make the former subservient'? All honor to these scions of Great Britain's surgical art, who have astonished the world with their consummate ability! ”

“ Next to Moses in medical lore should be mentioned Solomon, to whom is attributed a very high degree of knowledge of natural history, and who, Josephus claimed, had such perfect knowledge of the properties of all the productions of nature that he availed himself of it to compound remedies extremely useful, some of which had even the virtues necessary to cast out devils.
The most conspicuous feature in the life of the Indian races is their division into castes, of which the most noble is that of the priests, or Brahmins, who in ancient times alone had the privilege of practicing medicine. ”

“ The condition known everywhere as gangrene, when moist and offensive, is nothing but the putrefaction of tissues en masse which are not yet detached or separated from the living body of which they but recently formed a living part.
Experiments with organic material outside the body have amply demonstrated that such putrefactive processes can be checked by certain precautions—such as filtration of air, heat, etc. It remained for the genius of Lister to show how similar processes of putrefaction and exclusion of germs could be made serviceable for the prevention of disease in the human race. ”

“ Among those who most contributed to make the period of which we are now speaking a glorious one, raising himself from the lowest walks of life to the attainment of the highest professional honors, is Ambroise Paré, whose name will never die while the art of surgery is taught. ”

“ Popular education was a myth, and the children of bondmen were not permitted to learn. No wonder the French revolution was hailed with joy along the Rhine, where it swept away at once and forever the petty rulers, abbots, and bishops, who were the "bloodsuckers" of the people. The numerous wars of the century had no great influence upon the development of medicine, except in the direction of surgery. ”

“ I have also tried, so far as I could in such brief space, to indicate the relationship which has ever existed between medicine, philosophy, natural science, theology, and even belles-lettres. Particularly is the history of medicine inseparable from a consideration of the various notions and beliefs that have at times shaken the very foundation of Christendom and the Church, and for reasons which appear throughout the book.
The history of medicine is really a history of human error and of human discovery. During the past two thousand years it is hard to say which has prevailed. ”

“ Arriving now at the surgery of this Age, we find that matters were more chaotic than in other departments of medicine, and for reasons which are easily given and appreciated. While, ordinarily, external diseases are more easily discerned than internal, and while in a corresponding degree they can be more satisfactorily treated; while, in other words, external pathology has ordinarily taken precedence of internal in professional as in lay minds, this view seems to have been inverted for a time during the Middle Ages. ”

“ In reviewing the theories and lives of those mentioned as medical luminaries of the eighteenth century, one experiences a feeling of mingled respect and disappointment—respect for the devoted way in which they worked and sought for the truth, and disappointment at so much waste of intellectual power and labor. ”

“ I have described all necessary instruments, and I present their forms by means of drawings; in a word, I have omitted nothing of what can shed light to the profession.... But one of the principal reasons why it is so rare to meet a successful surgeon is that the apprenticeship of this branch is very long, and he who devotes himself to it must be versed in the science of anatomy, of which Galen has transmitted us the knowledge.... In fine, no one should permit himself to attempt this difficult art without having a perfept knowledge of anatomy and the action of remedies. ”

“ Previous to the period now under discussion the sciences had generally declined in Europe, and surgery had fallen even lower than medicine, for the reason that medicine was in the hands of the priests, who had at that time something of a liberal education, while the practice of surgery was abandoned to a class of ignorant barbers, bathers, and bone-setters. No mechanic or artisan could take as an apprentice any youth without a certificate affirming his legitimate birth, and that he came from a family in which there were neither barbers, bath-keepers, shepherds, nor butchers. ”

“ Bordeu died in the enjoyment of great reputation, but at variance with all his colleagues. He maintained the existence of a general life of the body,—a composite life,—resulting from the harmonious working of the individual lives and powers of all the organs, which were supposed to be associated with each other, but each for its own definite function; the most important organs—the stomach, heart, and brain—being called "the tripod of life." In pathology he laid great weight upon crises, which were supposed to proceed from the glands. ”

“ He regarded the soul as the supreme principle, life-giving and life-preserving, not to be confounded with the spirit; when hindered or obstructed in its operation, disease was present. The soul governed the organism chiefly by way of the circulation; consequently, plethora played an important rôle. To get rid of this plethora the soul employed either fever or convulsive movements; for example, in children plethora produces a pressure of blood to the head, and, by way of compensation, the soul provides a haemorrhage from the nose. ”

“ The man who would be an ideal oral surgeon must be not only generally familiar with anatomy and physiology, but must thoroughly know the embryology of the face and teeth, the physiology not alone of the organs of the mouth, but of all the secreting glands and the chemistry of all their secretions;338 not only the anatomy of the cranium, but general anatomy as well, and even comparative anatomy. ”

“ One was termed the Realist, and believed, with Plato, that ideas are self-existent and independent of the mind,—in other words, veritable entities; the other, the Nominalist, held, with Aristotle, that general ideas are pure abstractions formed by the mind with the aid of sensations received from without, without which they could never exist,—that is, if a being could be imagined without sensibilities and the power of sensation, such being would be destitute of ideas. ”