Historical notes on poisoning.

  • David Ferrier
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical notes on poisoning. 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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    HISTORICAL NOTES ON POISONING. Gentlemen,—In introducing myself to you for the first time as teacher of Forensic Medicine, I have followed the usual custom of making my first lecture of what may be termed an untechnical charac- ter, before proceeding to the more special consideration of the subjects of which our science treats ; and, in doing so, I cannot help expressing the consciousness I feel of the arduous task I shall have before me in endeavouring worthily to fill the chair occupied for so many years and so ably by my distinguished predecessor. Dr. Guy. It is unnecessary, as it would be out of place, for me to eulogise Dr. Guy; his merits are well known to every one. Dr. Guy has deservedly gained a wide and brilliant reputation as an acknowledged master in State Medicine and Social Science. His work on Forensic Medicine—our text-book— is a model of clearness and precision, containing all that is valuable in the science, and enriched in almost every particular with the fruits of Dr. Guy's own able and original research. It is a matter of congratu- lation to us all that Dr. Guy, though retiring from this chair, still con- tinues in King's College as professor of that most important branch of State Medicine which he is so well qualified to teach—viz., the subject of Hygiene or Public Health. This is daily assuming more and more importance, not only in the eyes of the profession, but of the people generally ; so that it is being gradually detached and constituted into a distinct and separate department, and its principles more widely taught. Nor is this unnecessary, when we consider how much not merely the physical, but the mental and moral well-being of a nation, depend on the knowledge and religious observance of sound hygienic principles, supported by enlightened sanitary legislation. The truth of this is now forcing itself prominently on the minds of our legislators; and already those who have the credit of being the hardest to move, are B
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