Remarks on a recent effort to subvert the charter of the Royal College of Surgeons : with animadversions on the evil tendency of "The Lancet" : and observations respectfully addressed to general practitioners, on the best means of maintaining their privileges and repectability / by William Cooke.
- Cooke, William, 1785-1873.
- Date:
- 1826
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on a recent effort to subvert the charter of the Royal College of Surgeons : with animadversions on the evil tendency of "The Lancet" : and observations respectfully addressed to general practitioners, on the best means of maintaining their privileges and repectability / by William Cooke. 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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![is requisite in the application of what we acquire to the distinction of diseases which bear close analogies; in the skilful adaptation of our resources to guide a painful and peril- ous malady to a happy termination. We find here a topic which binds us closely in society. The powers of the mind are very limited :—Life is short. The science of alle- viating human suffering, is very comprehensive — and hitherto many of the afflictions incident to mankind, are beyond the power of human skill to remove—yes, even to allay. Under considerations so momentous, what ought we to do ? Will it avail us any thing to spend our time in reproaching those who preceded us, for not judging more accurately—for not hand- ing down to us clearer views of the nature and management of conditions which have been so afflictive to mankind in all ages ? If we indulge in painfid retrospection; tracing to the time of the Prince of Physicians, the divine Hippocrates, and discover, that although so many centuries have intervened, and though the line of agents specially de- voted to these objects, runs through the whole period, yet on many important points little or no advancement has been made; it will profit us nothing to indulge in the spirit of animad- version ; nor would the exposure of their de- ficiencies lessen our own responsibility. ]f,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21473444_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)