Address on the occasion of conferring medical degrees in the University of Glasgow, July 28th 1887 / by George H.B. MacLeod.

  • MacLeod, George H. B., Sir (George Husband Baird), 1828-1892.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on the occasion of conferring medical degrees in the University of Glasgow, July 28th 1887 / by George H.B. MacLeod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ingenious syllogism. Eemedies were employed merely because of some supposed resemblance to a bodily organ, or because of their colour or perfume ; and tlieir value could, they imagined, be determined by arith- metical or musical combinations. Such follies are, of course, no longer known, but are our therapeutics even now always founded on reliable observations, and has the overshadowing influence of great names quite dis- appeared ? One thing we of the present race do claim over our predecessors, and it were well if the title were more widely asserted—viz., we recognize and ascribe a greater influence to Nature and less to art in the cure of disease. We study with care the natural history of disease, and thus we are able to recog- nise to an extent impossible in the old days what we can do and what we cannot do in resulatino- CD O its course. That silent but most potent force which Hippocrates defined as the aggregate of all things which concur to perfect health, and the founda- tion of all right reasoning and practice in physic, is not now ojjpressed and thwarted as it used to be. Veiled under innumerable forms and designations ( pathies and isms and cures ) this physician within the skin is ever the sick man's friend, and while it imparts to some drugs all the good influence they possess, it ever leaves some means of escape from the dangers of mal-practice. Whatever you do, then, in your future career have faith and reliance on this ever-present and puissant force. Open your eyes wide to find its mode of action. Let neither your own
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