Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the fourth session of the Medical College of South Carolina, November 1827 / by Samuel Henry Dickson.

  • Samuel Henry Dickson
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the fourth session of the Medical College of South Carolina, November 1827 / by Samuel Henry Dickson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    13/26
    ]y aware of all these modifying circumstances, is also unde- niably true. That we thus fail in the Prognosis which we deliver in numerous instances, is conceded. That we also sometimes fail for the same reasons in procuring the wished- for and expected effect from remedial means, must also be acknowledged. It is not the dead matter of which the me- dicine consists, which properly speak ng, acts upon the living body, but the living body is excited specifically, and acts upon the dead matter ; the operation therefore cannot be uniform, but must vary of course with the state or condition of the recipient. It is granted, that as yet we know little or nothing of the essential nature of the vital principle ; that we know little or nothing of the nature or mode of action of the minuter parts of our frame, those in which this principle of vitality has its undoubted seat, and of which the larger masses are formed and compounded. But happily for us, such know- ledge, though greatly to be desired, (as all knowledge is valuable as well for its own sake as for the power which it must of course confer,) such knowledge, I say, is not absolute- ly necessary for any purpose of practical utility. The Me- chanician may calculate his problems, and construct his ma- chines with sufficient accuracy to produce every desired re- sult, although he does not understand the attraction of gravita- tion which constitutes the weight to be raised and the resist- ance to be overcome, nor the nature of cohesion by which he is to act in elevating these weights and getting the better of the resistance offered. The Agriculturist may obtain abun- dant harvests by proper management, although he does not comprehend the agency of his manures, nor the nature of that peculiarity which adapts them to the soil he labours upon. Our science, like every other, has been built up by a careful observation of facts alone. Semi-barbarous nations, and the vulgar in all countries, are content with the notice of such facts which lie open to carelessness and inattention itself. They cannot be blind to circumstances which happen