General pathology, as conducive to the establishment of rational principles for the diagnosis and treatment of disease : a course of lectures, delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital, during the summer session of 1850 / by John Simon.

  • John Simon
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General pathology, as conducive to the establishment of rational principles for the diagnosis and treatment of disease : a course of lectures, delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital, during the summer session of 1850 / by John Simon. 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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    modern science, showing that the whole system of chemical combina- tion is according to a numerical scale, in which every element and every union of elements has its possibilities of combination limited and denned in respect of every other element, or every other union of elements. In respect of the studies which are peculiar to our own profession —those which relate to organized beings, there is the same distinc- tion to be drawn between the mere perception or registration of phenomena, and their reduction to a scientific form; in these,as in other departments of knowledge, you will find that the description of particular phenomena does not in itself constitute science. [Illustrations were given by comparison of Descriptive Anatomy with Physiology.] If now you pass to the study of Pathology, understanding what it must be to constitute a science legitimately so called, you will ob- serve that it professes to interpret and systematize the phenomena furnished by the body in disease—phenomena, the primary recognition of which has arisen in the auxiliary and anterior labours of the mor- bid anatomist, the morbid chemist, and the clinical observer; it con- stitutes, in fact, the rational element (as distinguished from the mere exercise of eyesight, hearing, touch, &c.) in the science of medical observation. . , While I distinguish Pathology from the passive exercise ot the senses in matters of medical experience, and while I tell you that it constitutes the rational element in the science of medical observation, pray do not fall into the grievous error of thinking, even for a moment, that the pathologist can fitly refrain from observation or can do otherwise than observe incessantly and critically; much less that he can throw himself on the resources of his own intellect, as means of progress independent of observation. I wish you indeed to feel that, in order to make the best use ot your senses, you must employ something more than those senses— that in order to scientific observation, you must react on every ex- terior impression with an intellectual purpose and energy of your own. I would caution you, certainly, against being mere sight-seers in the dead-house, or mere crepitation-counters m the ward; but at least equally I would warn you against any endeavour to divorce ex- perience from your reflections, and against any belief that theory, apart from observation, can furnish you with aught better than shiftincr sands for the foundation of your knowledge. The merest observer may possibly (though, as I think insufficiently) collect his materials without being a pathologist. He may describe a red mucous membrane, a hard lung, a big heart, a heavy bone, an opaque lens, a quick pulse, a vomiting or a purging, a cutaneous erup ion, a contracted pupil, a paroxysm of ague or of epilepsy, a crystalline deposit from the urine, or a microscopical congeries of cells ; he may describe any of these actions or phenomena without the slightest knowledge of their method of production, or of the laws which govern their existence. But the converse does not hold good ; no progress can be made in pathology except from the ground of accurate and