Ourselves, our food, and our physic / by Benjamin Ridge.

  • Ridge, Benjamin
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ourselves, our food, and our physic / by Benjamin Ridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    196/220 page 184
    liavo been kept confined, because the vitjil powers were en- dangered by the largo intestines parting with the elements, which I have shown engender the vital gases. What medi- cines might have been used to cause these ‘ diai-rhoeas ’ I cannot say; but as I know the j)ractices of empiricism, I cannot refrain from supposing that the poor liver must have been, as it always is, considered to be at fault, and if the bowels did not act, which w'as their natural law tmder the circumstances, they were duly attempted by art. Such facts as these have yet no i)lace in medical ethics; and therefore it follows, that if the bowels were confined they must be opened. I of com-se can only judge of what course might have been pursued by the way in which medicine is now practised. Nor can blame or censure be given for any acts done according to laws which ai*e generally recognized. Surely the present age does an injustice to itself, if it takes for granted any tenets of the schools, which are capable of expansion or are so imstable as to bear refutation. It is a degeneracy of mind slavishly to submit to dogmas if they bo inconclusive. If advance took place in all the consecu- tive sciences, which led our predecessors to new conclusions, it necessai’ily follows, that if a fm-ther advance ensues, wo cannot remain stationary. The more perfect understanding of the w'ondrous* machinery of the hmnan body in all its phases has considerably advanced, while the actual applica- tion of medicine remains the same; no certain results ac- company it, but all is confusion and doubt. The jjrofessiou has constantly to hear the note of repre- hension sounded in their ears by the public journals on all occasions when their shortcomings are evident. Thus:— ‘ But is it true or false that, as a general rule, disease re- mains no less formidable and mysterious than ever, and practitioners, as a body, have not advanced in science and sagacity in a ratio with the intellectual development of the day ? Their knowledge in a himdred essential respects is defective ; and in nine cases out of ten, biifllcd by the mysteries of Nature, they have recom-so to the hazards of the grossest empiricisms.”* On all important trials, when medical witnesses are exa- * Daily Telegraph (Leader), November 3, 18G0.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3