Observations on the healthy and diseased properties of the blood / by William Stevens.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the healthy and diseased properties of the blood / by William Stevens. 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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    can only strike at the root of the evil by remedying the vitiated state of the vital fluid, the healthy con- dition of which is as essential to the healthy action of the various organs, as the purity of the air which we breathe is essential to the maintenance of life. The science of medicine is greatly indebted to Dr. Front, for having so ably drawn the attention of the profession to the great advantages which may be derived from the study of animal chemistry : and if he has dwelt but little on the nervous system, this is the less to be regretted; particularly at a period, when so much has been lost by the almost exclur sive attention which has been devoted to the solids. There is, however, at this moment a more active spirit abroad; and many individuals in the field, of first-rate talents. Even the students are looking at present with becoming suspicion on the exclusive theories of Cullen or Broussais, and have now no longer the same veneration for ‘ the magic of a name which they had but a few years ago; consequently, those doctrines are not likely to be long in favour, which are supported neither by fair experiments nor by the result of practice. Under such circum- stances, may we not hope that a new era is about to dawn on the practice of medicine, and that common sense will replace those exclusive dogmas which have been so long the pride of physicians and the disgrace of their science ? It is only, however, in the