Fallacies of the faculty, with the principles of the chrono-thermal system of medicine : in a series of lectures originally delivered in 1840, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly / by S. Dickson.
- Samuel Dickson
- Date:
- 1843
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Fallacies of the faculty, with the principles of the chrono-thermal system of medicine : in a series of lectures originally delivered in 1840, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly / by S. Dickson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![Scarcely was the People’s Edition pub- lished, when the same individual, who in June 184‘2, enlightened the British Associa- tion with his “discoveries” on Vital Perio- dicity—Dr. Laycock of York—ventured to put forth something more in the same original vein in the Lancet—and among other things to prevent (provoke ?) controversy” he claims to have “ discovered the periodic movement of all Vitality”! Immediately on seeing this, 1 wrote to the Editor of the Lancet, charging Dr. Laycock with Piracy; sending at the same time a copy of the People’s Edition, Fallacies of the Faculty, that the respective dates of his and my papers might be compared. Instead of printing my letter, Mr, Wakley, the Editor, in a note to Correspondents, informed me “The Pamphlet [Fallacies of the Faculty, a pamphlet!] of Dr. Dickson, will be examined in connexion with the paper of Dr. Laycock, and our opinion of the question raised by Dr. Dickson given in another number.” I im- mediately wrote to say, I would dispense with his, Mr. Editor’s opinion, if he would do me the favour to print my letter. But to such a course, this most just judge, this “ second Daniel,’’ had the most invincible objection,—as my readers may perceive from the tone of his next announcement: “We have received the second note of Dr. Dickson—who may adopt any course that he thinks proper, though he may be assured that we shall not allow him to make use of the columns of this journal for promulgating a charge of piracy against a highly respectable physician, unless he ac- companies that charge with proofs of the accu- racy of his allegation—[the first time he asks for proofs !] The subject is in process of in- vestigation and a perfectly fair and just deci- sion shall be the result.” Knowing pretty well the sort of investiga- tion, Mr. Wakley intended, I immediately dispatched the following to his address, taking care at the same time, to send a copy to the Medical Times, where it was in due time in- serted ; — TO THE EDITOR OF THE “ LANCET”. Do not. Sir, imagine that any trick, or arti- fice, however ingenious, can juggle me out of a discovery which it has been the labour of my life to establish—the discovery of the Periodic movement of all Vitality—of the Periodicity of life in health—the Periodicity of life in disease— of the Periodicity of movement of universal na- ture ! You will not, you say, allow me to make use of the columns of your Journal “ for pro- mulgating a charge of piracy against a highly respectable physician unless I accompany that charge with proofs of the accuracy of my alle- gation,” and in the same breath you add “ the subject is in process of investigation, and a perfectly fair and just decision shall be the re- sult.” What! an investigation and decision without proofs! Not Mr. Thomas Wakley surely, but some blockhead of an underling must have penned that absurdity. Proofs 1 What proofs do you demand—words? dates ? or both ? words, or dates, that the papers re- cently printed and eulogized by you under the head of “ Vital Periodicity, by Dr. Laycock” are so many mean attempts to plagiarize my doctrine of the periodic movement of all vita- lity ! Sir, the proofs are already in your pos- session they are contained in my Works, the Fallacy of the Art of Physic, &c.; the Unity of Disease, and Fallacies of the Faculty. 1st. 2nd. .Srd. and foreign editions; nay, they are stamped, indelibly stamped, on your own pages ! Look to the Lancet for 23i’d Sept. 18S7, and you will there find, what Dr. Laycock now so modestly puts forth as his, the whole doctrine of vital periodicity given by myself. Let me quote it.—“ The principal aim of my volume {Fallacy of the Art of Phy- sic, 8(C., published in 1836) has been to de- monstrate that the corporeal actions of man in his healthy state constitute the basis or stan- dard of EVERY kind of LIVING action (all vi- tality ?) In health he rests from his labour— he sleeps—he wakes to sleep again—his lungs now inspiring air, now expelling it; his heart successively dilating and contracting ; his blood brightening in one set of vessels only again to darken in another—his food and drink nutri- tious one hour to become excrementitious the next—in a word all his appetites and necessi- ties PERIODICALLY alternating with each other.” Nor do I confine this doctrine of periodicity to health—for in the same number of the Lancet you will find the following ; “ Is it not strange that the profession should still couple remit- tency (periodicity ?) exclusively with miasma or malaria as a cause. Every writer who has professedly treated the subject, refers to this, (malaria) seeming to be totally and absolutely unconscious of the universality of remission (periodicity r) as a law of all Disease.” Thus far I have quoted from what I have written](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28037789_0201.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
