Medicine

“ The latter is a large medical dictionary, containing, in a brief form, not only explanations from all departments of medicine, but also their manifold applications. In connection with every disease is given an explanation of its cause, its symptoms, and the method of its cure, along with even the ordinary prescriptions. This was for me a real treasure. I studied the book thoroughly, and believed myself to be master of the science of medicine, and a complete physician. ”

“ We conclude by impressing upon our brethren who are studying medicine in the light of reason and science, the urgency of the duty [251] that devolves upon them of so using the element of physic in medical practice as to make more and more apparent the great gulf that is fixed between their practice and the rival quackeries of the day. Let them use medicine so that the most undiscerning patient will perceive that it is only one of many means to an end, auxiliary only to great provisions in the body itself, and for the most part acting, not mysteriously, like quinine, but sensibly or chemically. ”

“ The art of medicine is the science of physiology applied to detailed vital phenomena by the help of a wisdom which comes of enlightened experience, and an ingenuity which is born of practice. Were there not a single case on record in which physiology had given special and direct help to the cure of the sick, there would still remain the great truth that the ideas of physiology are the mother-ideas of medicine. ”

“ This universal and acknowledged rule is Pathology, the science which unfolds and exhibits the nature and character of disease, and "dictates the maxims of rational practice." It is the foundation and only base of rational medicine, which proceeds on the assumption that the nature and character of disease is fully known and appreciated. This knowledge is not only rational, but indispensable, in order to understand and apply the principles which ought to govern in the medication and cure of disease. ”

“ Yet we regard clinical medicine as illustrating art, and didactic medicine as representing science. What figure, think you, would the hospital professor make who should come before you with a patient, and be unable to determine with what disease the person was suffering, the organs affected by it, the nature of their functional disturbance, why some functions rather than others were disordered, how these various elements affect the issue of the attack, what that issue will probably be, and finally, what means should be taken to render it favorable? ”

“ It is a common proverb, that one extreme often follows another. It is sometimes so in medicine. As soon as physicians had let go the absurd idea that diseases were the work of demons, had given up their useless mysticisms, and begun to look upon disease as the effect of natural causes—when Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology had helped to explain morbid phenomena, and rational means had come to be employed, practitioners commenced a course of active treatment and went to work with all their might to cure all diseases by positive medication. ”

“ Thus, for the proper perfection of medicine as a rational science, two things are in the main needed: the first is a right understanding of the causes and symptoms of disease; the second, a correct knowledge of the action of medicines. [Pg 15] Should our acquaintance with these two subjects be complete, we should then be able to do all that man could by any possibility effect in the alleviation of human suffering. This sublime problem is already being unravelled at one end. Diagnosis and Nosology are making rapid strides; and perhaps we shall soon know what we have to cure. ”

“ Other eminent medical men have given utterance to these aphorisms: “The science of medicine is founded on conjecture and improved by murder;” “Mercury has made more cripples than war;” “Ninety-nine medical facts are medical lies;” “Every dose of medicine is a blind experiment;” “The older physicians grow the more sceptical they become of the virtues of their own medicines.” ”

“ As I devoted myself with all possible zeal to the work in hand it was not long before I realized thoroughly that the best way of increasing one’s knowledge of medicine is to begin applying, in actual practice, such principles as one may already have acquired; and thus I became convinced that the physician [421] who earnestly studies, with his own eyes,—and not through the medium of books,—the natural phenomena of the different diseases, must necessarily excel in the art of discovering what, in any given case, are the true indications as to the remedial measures that should be employed. ”

“ Probably most readers are aware that physiology is that science which treats of the various functions of life, such as digestion, respiration and the circulation of the blood, while therapeutics is that department of medicine which relates to the discovery and application of remedies for disease. Now I venture to assert that, during the last quarter of a century, infliction of intense torture upon unknown myriads of sentient, living creatures, has not resulted in the discovery of a single remedy of acknowledged and generally accepted value in the cure of disease. ”

“ Whenever the most perfect knowledge of Chemistry and Physics becomes the basis of rational Medicine, then, and not till then, Medicine will obtain the highest place among all the arts that minister to the welfare and happiness of man. ”

“ Such has been the course pursued by the modern science of medicine, which from the original absurd remedies and equally absurd empirical operations, has now succeeded in placing the cure of diseases on the more solid basis of experience. ”

“ Many centuries had still to elapse before medicine could gain that freedom of action, that rich equipment of tools, and that stock of accumulated knowledge which enable her in these days to make such giant strides forward as we have witnessed during the past twenty or thirty years.
The question will naturally arise, How did the Methodists decide, in the presence of an actual case of illness, which one of these abnormal states (the laxum, the strictum, or the mixtum) was the condition that called for medical treatment? ”

“ Even from this passing glance at the conditions that must modify every plan of treatment, it is evident that to assert of a particular medicine or method that it is the most efficient in a given disease is to convey very little information. ”

“ Medicine, med′i-sin, or med′sin, n. anything applied for the cure or lessening of disease or pain, whether simple or compound (made up of more than one ingredient) : the science which treats of the prevention or cure of disease: a charm.—v.t. to treat or cure by medicine.—adj. Medic′inal, relating to medicine: fitted to cure or to lessen disease or pain.—adv. Medic′inally.—ns. Med′icine-bag, a Red Indian's receptacle for charms; Med′icine-chest, a chest for keeping medicines in a ship, &c.; Med′icine-man, among savages, a witch-doctor or exorciser.—adjs. ”

“ The records of medicine furnish us with instances of death from each of the above causes. But let us not despair. It becomes a physician to believe, that there is no disease necessarily incurable; and that there exist in the womb of time, certain remedies for all those morbid affections, which elude the present limits of the healing art. ”

“ During the last half century a great change has taken place in the treatment of disease. Medicine has advanced with rapid strides, from the narrow limits of mere empiricism, to the broader realm of rationalism, until to day it comprehends all the elements of an art and a science. ”

“ And more than all we shall see medicine now studied with the view rather of anticipating disease or its results, and bringing to the help of its investigations that aid from science, which directly and indirectly contributes so largely to the ultimate success of such an undertaking. ”

“ It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no such thing; medicine is the surgery of functions, as surgery proper is that of limbs and organs. Neither can do anything but remove obstructions; neither can cure; nature alone cures. Surgery removes the bullet out of the limb, which is an obstruction to cure, but nature heals the wound. So it is with medicine; the function of an organ becomes obstructed; medicine, so far as we know, assists nature to remove the obstruction, but does nothing more. ”

“ It involves a continuance of the mischievous ideal of medical practice of the past, a conception still held by a large portion of the public to its own detriment, that a hasty inquiry, a perfunctory examination, and a bottle of medicine, represent the best that scientific medicine can offer a patient. ”

“ Instructive, indeed, are the lessons to be gained from a study of the History of Medicine, but perhaps none more so than those which point out to us the advantage of studying disease with special regard to its ultimate consequences, rather than with respect alone to its more prominent symptoms. ”

“ Medicine is a science which hath been (as we have said) more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than advanced; the labour having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in progression. ”

“ Many practitioners, indeed, hold every thing that is in the least theoretical, in great contempt. They 3alledge, that a physician possesses all the knowledge requisite in medicine, who is acquainted with particular remedies which will infallibly cure particular diseases. Could such remedies be discovered, their reasoning would indeed hold good; and medicine, which, of all arts, is in reality the most difficult, would be the easiest. ”

“ Medicine is a collection of uncertain prescriptions, the results of which, taken collectively, are more fatal than useful to mankind. Water, air and cleanliness are the chief articles in my pharmacopoeia. ”

“ The practice of medicine is every year becoming [pg 293] more successful. New and improved methods of treating disease are being discovered and developed, and the conscientious physician will avail himself of all the means, by a knowledge of which he may benefit his fellow-men. ”

“ And our plan of treatment will become rational, when on the one hand, from an accurate knowledge of the symptoms of diseases, we are better enabled to meet each by its appropriate remedy, and on the other hand, from some acquaintance with the general action of a medicine, we are fitted to wield it with more skill and effect, and to apply it even in cases where it has not yet been proved beneficial. ”

“ Regimen will often cure diseases without medicine, but medicine will seldom succeed where a proper regimen is neglected. For this reason, in the treatment of diseases, we have always given the first place to regimen. Those who are ignorant of medicine may confine themselves to it only. For others who have more knowledge, we have recommended some of the most simple but approved forms of medicine in every disease. ”

“ In the course of the development of that most experimental of all sciences, medicine, not only has dosing been reduced to a minimum, but also the natural recuperative powers of the patient have been discovered and are relied upon. ”

“ Mind as far outstrips drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is Mind Science in every case. Medicine is not a science, but a bundle of speculative human theories. The prescription that succeeds in one instance fails in another, owing to the different mental states of the patient. ”

“ Dr FRANK, an eminent author and practitioner.
"Our actual information or knowledge of disease does not increase in proportion to our experimental practice. Every dose of medicine given is a blind experiment upon the vitality of the patient." ”

“ Among the physicians belonging to the latter half of the thirteenth and the first quarter of the fourteenth century there is one whose proper place in the history of medicine is by no means easy to determine, and who yet played a part of no small importance. ”

“ Physiology gives us the clearest light in the cure of diseases, which is the grand object of all our inquiries in medicine. The study of it is most entertaining, and engages our closest attention from the many curious subjects with which it abounds. ”

“ We see the theories which at one time or other have possessed the minds of those who have been engaged in the practice of medicine overthrown, when viewed by that pure light which the investigation of disease alone can give. ”

“ Strange as it may at first appear, the science of medicine from this time onward made no further conspicuous progress until the middle of the seventeenth century of the present era. In certain branches of practical medicine—as, for example, pharmacology, obstetrics and general surgery, and also in certain special departments—the Empirics made a number of material additions to our knowledge ”

“ For, medicine being a compendium of the successive and contradictory mistakes of medical practitioners, when we summon the wisest of them to our aid, the chances are that we may be relying on a scientific truth the error of which will be recognised in a few years’ time. So that to believe in medicine would be the height of folly, if not to believe in it were not greater folly still, for from this mass of errors there have emerged in the course of time many truths. ”

“ The Beginnings of Medicine.—In the early period of man’s existence upon this earth he must have possessed an exceedingly small stock of knowledge with regard to the maintenance of his body in health and with regard to the means which he should adopt in order to restore it to a normal condition after it had been injured by violence or impaired in its working machinery by disease. ”

“ The popular tide of medicine is always therapeutics, and the less one knows of anatomy and physiology the more sure he is to address himself exclusively to this department, and to rely upon empirical remedies. ”