A treatise on pathological anatomy / by William E. Horner.

  • Horner, William E. (William Edmonds), 1793-1853.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pathological anatomy / by William E. Horner. 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.)

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    as has been pithily observed,* he will have seen many patients, but no diseases. Execute dissections, and a new horizon is unfolded to view: the darkness which hung over his path becomes abrilhant and a shining light; the uncertainty which attended his steps is converted into assurance; the mistakes of prognos- tic which compromitted his character, are convert- ed into the prophecies of a superior intelligence. Such is the difference between the practical and the speculative physician; between the man whose stu- dies have been chastened by a continued reference to the evidences of dissections, and one who has resisted or neglected them. The salutary influence of pathological anatomy upon criminal jurisprudence, is continually felt where the scales of justice are nicely balanced. The Germans have so far admitted its importance, that they have applied it especially to legal medi- cine, under the name of Anatomia Forensis. A judicious opinion on a trial for life or death some- times rescues the innocent from undeserved punish- ment, and surrenders the guilty to the violated laws of humanity and rehgion. It perhaps would be ex- ceptionable to indicate cases where much of the sentence pro or con, has turned upon the evidence of physicians; they occur annually, and unhappily there are too many where the deficiencies of this evidence, defeat the ends of justice, which are to protect the innocent and to punish the guilty. Important, then, as this branch is in its medical ' Cniveilbier, Anat. Pathol, p. 10.