Introductory lecture to a course on the theory and practice of medicine : delivered at the Medical School Park Street Dublin / by William Stokes.

  • William Stokes
Date:
[between 1830 and 1839?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to a course on the theory and practice of medicine : delivered at the Medical School Park Street Dublin / by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    / SntroUnrtore Hcrturc TO A COURSE ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, Delivered at the Medical School Park Street Dublin, BY WILLIAM STOKES, M.D., * PHYSICIAN TO THE MEATH HOSPITAL, OR COUNTY OF DUBLIN INFIRMARY. [From the London Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 99-] Gentlemen,—You may have often heard that the approaches to science are rugged and un- interesting, and some of you have perhaps ex- perienced the trutli of the remark. Hence the custom of delivering an introductory lecture, in order to lay before the young mind, when first entering on each path of knowledge, the objects, the results, the attained good, and the hoped-for glory of the pursuit. These are to be displayed with clearness and with truth, yet it is obvious, that much of the effect of such a lecture must depend on the nature of the subject, and the judgment of the speaker; and it is well when the exalted nature of the one is attainable by the capabilities of the other. Such a lecture, then, should be an earnest lesson on the objects, the pleasures, and the advantages of that science, of which the course is destined to treat; its history, its true mode of study, its interests, actual state, and future prospects may all form legitimate subjects, and when thus rightly viewed, an introductory lecture, so far from being a mere ornamental appendage, may become a most important part of the course. With these views let us approach our sub- ject, the theory and practice of medicine, l.et us contemplate that study and that-profession, which, venerable by all antiquity, yet in itself is “ ever new.” Even in its infancy, when the world was in darkness, was medicine a glorious science when compared with its con- temporaries, and its first professors w?re en- nobled and exalted by its influence. As their mantles descended through a long line of il- lustrious successors, we see medicine progres- sively expanding, and even when the night of dicine has kept pace with her sister sciences, and it is a gratifying reflection to think, that among the most distinguished promoters of the collateral sciences, physicians have ever held a commanding rank, thus proving them- selves foremost in knowledge, as they have ever been in philanthropy, in private and public charity, and in all good will to man. It is scarcely necessary to allude to the title of this course of lectures, further than to re- mark, that however different they may be in name, it is yet impossible to draw the line of distinction between the theory and the prac- tice of medicine. If medicine were merely the knowledge of a number of empirical remedies for particular symptoms, given without our enquiring into their mode of action, or any acquaintance with the dependence of one func- tion, or one viscus, on another, of any know- ledge in short of physiology in the healthy or diseased stale, then we might have a practice of medicine independent of what is called its theory. But medicine now holds a higher place, and much of its improvement is trace- able to our advances in physiological and pa- thological science. Thus, to treat, or teach, the treatment of a disease, we must know the healthy function of the organ or organs, the history of development, the influence of other organic systems, the changes produced by dis- ease, and, as far as possible, the action of all external or internal agents on the viscera. But this is the theory of medicine. For example, let us suppose that we are called either to treat or to teach the treatment of a case of enlarged liver. Let me here re- mark, that in selecting this case 1 do not wish barbarism hung gloomily over the earth, imvou to suppose that 1 am one of what might called the hepatic school of medicine, in see its genius triumphing over the surroun ^ ing darkness, and shining in the east as a beacon to the shipwrecked mind of man; and 1 trust thiit 1 shall be able to prove to you, that, in our own lime, when the human mind has made such astonishing advances, that mc- wliiclt the existence of almoit every organ, except the liver, seems to be forgotten, and of which the creed seems to be, that there is but one viscus, the liver, one source of disease, bi- liary derangement, and one cure, mercury ; a