An introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic : containing observations on the inductive system of prosecuting medical inquiries, and a tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush, delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on the third of November, 1813 / by David Hosack.

Date:: 1813

Credit: An introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic : containing observations on the inductive system of prosecuting medical inquiries, and a tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush, delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on the third of November, 1813 / by David Hosack. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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a Cullen, and other celebrated physician, of Europe. Cherish, then, the feelings which this prospective view ex- citea, and let your exertions correspond with the obligation it imposes. The Practice of Physic, which, in connexion with Clinical Medicine, it is my province to teach in tins Uni- versity, is very properly defined, by a great systemat.c writer to be the art of discerning, distinguishing, pre- venting, and curing diseases. The discernment of a dis- ease, as l)r. Cullen very properly denominates it, is only t„ be acquired by long and habitual observation at the bed- side of the sick, for it frequently happens, that not only he symptoms, but the causes of disease, are so concealed, that L escape the observation bath of the patient and the by- stamler i and, even by the physician, are only to be disco xered by habitual attenlion to the phenomena of health as well as the symptoms of disease.. But this discernment ad- miu of still more extensive application, as it presents to the mimi those circumstances attendant upon diseases, which no Vfuie For although books of practice, an ^^LnishthLescripthmofthesymp / of disease and faithfully delineate the more promiimlf features by which they are characterized, there are certain “, JL .tr.■»“ ■

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