An introductory lecture addressed to the students of the Westminster Hospital at the commencement of the session 1871-72 : the relation existing between medicine and the other arts and sciences / by W.R. Basham.

  • William Richard Basham
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture addressed to the students of the Westminster Hospital at the commencement of the session 1871-72 : the relation existing between medicine and the other arts and sciences / by W.R. Basham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/40 page 24
    certainly the most practical of any of the moral sciences. Its objects and principles are of importance to every indivi¬ dual of the body corporate, for it has regard to his welfare and security in the social state ; and while preserving and respecting the limits of personal right, it maintains and legulates those rights for the welfare of the community at large. I have thus hastily glanced at the several branches of natural science, and still more cursorily have mentioned the objects and characteristics of what are usually regarded as the aits, and certain branches of moral philosophy. I desiie now to place before my young hearers somewhat moie distinctly the claim which medicine possesses to be considered a science, and to show how far it is an art dependent on the personal skill, judgment, or tact, of the individual; how far it is capable of being subject to fixed and determinate laws, and the extent to which these laws bind and regulate the judgment and opinion of the practitioner. The learned professions, law, physic, and divinity, have severally for their object the security of the person and property, the maintenance of the health, and the welfare of the soul of the individual. The piactice of the law and the duties of ecclesiastics may be efficiently and successfully conducted without any knowledge of, or assistance from, those sciences which teach the powers and properties of matter. The education of the lawyer and the clergyman will be the more complete, and the discipline of their intellects the more perfect, the greater their acquaintance with science in general; but a knowledge thereof is not an absolute essential to the successful practice of these professions. But how different is it with the practitioner of medicine.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3