A public lecture on medical ethics, and the mutual relations of patients and physician.

  • Merrill, A. P. (Ayres Phillips), 1793-1873.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A public lecture on medical ethics, and the mutual relations of patients and physician. 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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    ability of man to discover and illustrate the hidden truths and princip'es of God, and to convert them to the uses and the enlight- ens his rational creatures. No doubt these and other great scientific truths which have become known +o man, might have been very different from what they really are, and still answered the purposes of Creative wisdom; but we must take them as we find them, for they are fixed and unalterable, and, withal, so perfect that no humau mind can conceive of a change for the better. And such are the truths and principles which lie at the foundation o! medicine, which is acknowledged to he the broadest and most comprehensive of all the sciences. It is sometimes said of it, dis- pars inexact science; but it is this very feature which recommends it to the study of the first minds in the world. It is inexact because in its compreh i1 embraces much that is not yet known; but it is progressive, and its fundamental truths and principles are not likely to be any the less fixed and definite, because they have not ail yel been discovered. Being the work of Divine power, they were all, doubtless, established, like those of astrononry, chemistry and mathematics, with the beginning of time, and, like them, they will remain unchanged and unchangeable to the end of time, equally perfect and immuta- ble. There can be no doubt, therefore, thi principles of physiology, the- nature of disease, th and remedies of dis- ease, all come under the control of fixed and natural principles, which are ji vera] pi as unva- rying in their operafrans, as are those which govern the revolving aven, or the chemical combination of the atom matter in their, due proportions. Thi ed, the great object of our pro! is to discover these truths and principles, to study their character and influence, to distinguish facts from conjecture and by] 1 to apply the knowledge thus obtained to the relief of human suffering, mid to the prolongation of human li The better to enable men to objects, the advantages of association have been sought for, in various forms and under various name-, throughout the civilized world. In both Europe and us embrace the highest order i f nd under their auspices, as well as by individual effort, thousands of men, holding the first rank in the : world, have been laboring, shoulder to shoulder, for . in the improvement of medical knowledge and practice. The goal of all their laborious efforts is, the rfection of medical science, and the benefits re the human race. And sufficiently important, and sufficiently to boast of the extraordinary results of the past, and at, the same time to promise more extraordinary results