Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. ... to which are added, some important observations concerning sea-bathing, and the use of the mineral waters; with many other additions / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1805
    operation with their own hands; and as the:r focccfs has Seen equal to* that of the moft digrvr.e-d inocu- liters, there is little reaion to douht that the practice wiil become general. Whenever this thali he the cafe, more lives will be hived hv inoculation alone, than are at present hv all the endeavours of the Face tv. INTRO-
    INTRODUCTION. 'TTIE improvements in Medicine, fince the revival of learning, have by no means kept pace with thofeof the other arts. The reafon is obvious. Medicine has been ftudied by few, except thole who intended to live by it as a bufinefs. Such, either from a midaken zeal for the honour of Medicine, or to raife their own im- portance, have endeavoured to difguife and conceal the art. Medical authors have generally written in a fo- reign language; and thofe who are unequal to this talk, have even valued themfelves upon couching, at lead, their prefcriptions, in terms and charafters unintelligible to the red of mankind. The contentions of the clergy, which happened foon after the redoration of learning, engaged the attention of mankind, and paved the way for that freedom of thought and inquiry, which has fince prevailed in mod parts of Europe with regard to religious matters. Every man took a fide in thofe bloody difputes; and every gen- tleman, that he might didinguifh himfelf on one fide or other, was indru&ed in Divinity. This taught people to think and reafon for themfelves in matters of religion, and at lad totally dedroyed that complete and abfolute dominion which the clergy had obtained over the minds of men. The dudy of law has likewife, in mod civilized na- tions, been judly deemed a necelfary part of the educa- tion of a gentleman. Every gentleman ought certainly to know at lead the laws of his own country: and, if he were alfo acquainted with thofe of others, it might be more than barely an ornament to him. I he different branches of Philofophy have alfo of late been very univerfally dudied by all who pretended to a liberal education. The advantages of this.are manifed. b It
    Ir. frees the mind from prejudice and fuperftition ; fits it for the inveftigation of truth ; induces habits of reafon- ing and judging properly ; opens an inexhauflible fource of entertainment; paves the way to the improvement of arts and agriculture ; and qualifies men for acting with propriety in the mod important ftations of life. Natural Hiftory has likewife become an objedt of ge- neral attention ; and it well deferves to be fo. It leads to difcoveries of the greateft importance. Indeed, agri- culture, the mod ufeful of all arts, is only a branch of Natural Hiftory, and can never arrive at a high de- gree of improvement where the ftudy of that fcience is negledied. Medicine, however, has not, as far as I know, in any country, been reckoned a neceflary part of the education of a gentleman. But furely no fufficient reafon can be affigned for this omiflion. No fcience lays open a more extenfive field of ufeful knowledge, or affords more am- ple entertainment to an inquifitive mind. Anatomy, Botany, C.hvmiftry, and the Materia Medica, are all branches of Natural Hiftory, and are fraught with fuch amufenrent and utility,that the man who entirely negledts them has but a forry claim either to tafte or learning. If a gentleman has a turn for obfervation, fays an ex- cellent and fenfible writer *, furely the natural hiftory of his own fpecies is a more interefting fubjedt, and prefents a more ample field for the exertion of genius, than the natural hiftory of fpiders and cockle-fhells. We do not mean that every man fhould become a phyfician. This would be an attempt as ridiculous as it is impoffible. All we plead for is, that men of fenfe and learning fhould be fo far acquainted with the general principles of Medicine as to be in a condition, to de- rive from it fome of thofe advantages with which it is fraught; and at the fame time to guard themfelves againft the deftruftive influence of Ignorance, Superfti- tion, and Quackery. As matters ftand at prefent, it is eafier to cheat a man out of his life than of a fhilling, and almoft impoffible • Observations on the Duties and Offices of a Phyfician. either
    either to detect or punilh the offender. Notwithffand- ing this, people (till (hut their eyes, and take every thing upon truft that is adminiftered by any Pretender to Me- dicine, without daring to afk him a reafon for any part of his condudt. Implicit faith, every where elfe the ob- jea of ridicule, is ftill facred here. Many of the faculty are no doubt worthy of all the confidence that can be repofed in them ; but as this can never be the character of every individual in any profeflion, it would certainly be for the fafety, as well as the honour, of mankind, to have fome check upon the conduct of thole to whom they entruft fo valuable a treaiure as health. The veil of myftery, which (till hangs over Medicine, renders it not only a conjectural, but even a lufpicious art. This has been long ago removed from the other fciences, which induces many to believe that Medicine is a mere trick, and that it will not bear a fair and can- did examination. Medicine, however, needs only to be better known, in order to fecure the general efteem of mankind. Its precepts are fuch as every wile man would choofe to obferve, and it forbids nothing but what is incompatible with true happinefs. Difguifing Medicine not only retards its improvement as a fcience, but expofes the profeflion to ridicule, and is injurious to the true interefts of fociety. An art, found- ed on obfervation, can never arrive at any high degree of improvement, while it is confined to a few who make a trade of it. The united obfervations of all the inge- nious and fenfible part of mankind, would do more in a few years towards the improvement of Medicine, than thofe of the Faculty alone in a great many. Any man can tell when a medicine gives him eafe as well as a phy- fician ; and if he only knows the name and dofe of the medicine, and the name of the difeafe, it is fufficient to perpetuate the fadt. Yet the man who adds one Angle fadl to the flock of Medical obfervations, does more real fervice to the art, than he who writes a volume in fup~ port of fome favourite hypothefis. Very few of the valuable dilcoveries in Medicine have been made by phyficians. They have in general either been the effgdt of chance or of neceflity, and have been b 2 ufually
    ufually oppofed by the Facility, till every one elfe was convinced of their importance. An implicit faith in the opinions of teachers, an attachment to fyftemsand ella- bliflied forms, and the dread of reflexions, will always operate upon thofe ivho follow Medicine as a trade. Few improvements are to be expeXed from a man who might ruin his charaXer and family by even the fmalleft devia- tion from an eftablifhed rule. II men of letters, lays the author of the performance quoted above, were to claim their right of inquiry into a matter that fo nearly concerns them, the good effeXs of Medicine would foon appear. Such men would have no feparate interell from that of the art. They would deteX and expofe affuming Ignorance under the mafk of Gravity and Importance, and would be the judges and patrons of model! merit. Not having their undet Hand- ings perverted in their youth by falle theories, unawed by authority, and unbialfed by intereff, they would can- vafs with freedom the molt univerfally received princi- ples in Medicine, and expofe the uncertainty of many of thofe doXrines, of which a phyfician dares notfo much as feem to doubt. No argument, continues he, can be brought againfl laying open Medicine, which does not apply with equal if not greater force, to religion; yet experience has {hewn, that fince the laity have aflerted their right of in- quiry into thefe fubjeXs, Theology, confidered as a fcience, has been improved, the interefts of real religion have been promoted, and the clergy have become a more learned, a more ufeful, and a more refpeXable body of men, than they ever were in the days of their greatelt power and fplendour. Had other medical writers been as honefl as this gen- tleman, the art had been upon a very different footing at this day. Mod of them extol the merit of thofe men who brought Philofophy out of the Jchools, and lub- jeXed it to the rules of common lenfe. But they never confider that Medicine, at prefent, is in nearly the fame fituation that Philofophy was at that time, and that it might be as much improved by being treated in the lame manner. Indeed, no fcience can either be ren- dered