Lectures : chiefly clinical / by Thomas King Chambers.

  • Thomas King Chambers
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures : chiefly clinical / by Thomas King Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/666 (page 2)
    It is true that there are_, and always have been^ practitioners who declaim against theories altogether^ who even boast that they can do without them^ and think them useless^ not consider- ing that to express such scorn is as if we should be proud of not knowing what we do when we act^ or what we say when we talk. To reason at all is to theorise; no one without theorising can direct a method of cure to a sick person except at hap- hazard. As a matter of fact_, none of these objectors ever do prescribe without theorising about either the indiAddual sufferer or the class to which they refer his sickness^ though not always able to put their theory into words. In shorty the want of a guiding principle to connect the loose facts of daily experience has at all times been felt. ■ From this practical need have been bred the many systems of therapeutics stamping their mark from time to time on the history of our art. They have sprung from the brains of work- ing men at the bedside_, not from philosophers in their closets. Their adopters have not necessarily any strong faith in their truth or universal applicability; but the heart wearies for a chain to link together the scattered fragments of knowledge— a string for its pearls; it must have an idea on which to codify the laws of action. It would be a long task to quote the curious systems founded on imperfect data^ but numbering their hosts of followers in former ages^ which have been given up as false and dangerous j —I do not wish twice to slay the slain. I shall content myself with putting before you that which influences me in my practice, to which I now proceed. Man^s body may be likened to a stately mansion, made of beauteous but very perishable materials, all of which are always needing repairs to keep up the shapeliness and usefulness of the building. But not all in equal degrees; some of the walls may stand unaided for years, while other parts may want almost hourly looking after. When the owner leaves the dwelling the repairs cease, and then we see, not all at once, but one after another, the materials falling into ruin. It will serve a purpose in my argument to think over the several steps of this ruin for a few minutes. Already while the soul is withdrawing we know that changes