An inquiry into the reasons and results of the prescription of intoxicating liquors in the practice of medicine / by F.R. Lees.

  • Frederic Richard Lees
Date:
1866
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the reasons and results of the prescription of intoxicating liquors in the practice of medicine / by F.R. Lees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ' Thy faith is vain.'' pradent, therefore, in ihe application of its principles, and more reliant on a learned experience.* Still more to the pm-pose, was the confession of Dr Markham, in his address at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington :— Science had siibjeded to her searching analysis the opinions and ereduli- ties of mankind. She had made men give an account of the reason of- their opinions. She had waged, and was still waging, combat with the ignorance, and the prejudices, and the thousand vain images which had so long kept, and still keep the world from the clear vision of unclouded truth. How, then, should medicine—an art above all others , based on empirical practice, or opinion, or the results of individual belief and experience—escape the questioning of an age in which all opinions were being thus remodelled ? This questioning and revolutionary spirit had passed into medicine, and he would endeavour to show them what had been its workings, and how they might, as he ventured to think, best direct the inquiry so as most effectually to advance the knowledge of their art. Now, for the first time in its history, their art toa^ finding something like a sure foundation to rest upon, and though the actual advances hitlierto made by it towards the position of a science luere small, it liad entered on iJie path by which alone it could ever reach that posi- tion. Their knowledge of disease and its treatment, though it was limited, was sure. Error was now no necessary associate of medicine. They could mark where their positive knowledge ended, and could calculate nicely the •worth of the theories, and the worth of the practices, which they followed out in the cure of disease. They could estimate the limits of their therapeutical powers. The fermentation which medicine was now undergoing teas ap)roccss of purification from the burdens of errors which centuries had, gathered round it. This was why it was, that their progress in a positive sense had been but small—why they had as yet made but small advances towards the knowledge of the essential nature of diseases, and of tliat kind of treatment of them which might be called specific. Men of this generation could not hope to witness the elevation of medicine to the rank of a Science, but must be content •with the humble task of assisting to remove the obstacles which still beset its progress. They must be content to collect materials for the reconstruction of the building. They must have the courage to cast aside the false goddess which men of their professio'ii had so long and vainly worshipped. They nrastbe satisfied ■with that true knowledge which came to them as the offspring of rational scepticism, enlightened by science. Their medical faith must, like all other faiths, be passed through the fires of rational inquiry; and they must remember that the profoundest belief of the physician in the efficacy of the remedy which he administers, imparted no real curative 'power to it. The sowrce of the dAcpest errors vjhich attached to imdieine, was in the trust they were wonl to repose in vilud was called Expierience—that infallible oracle from whose dictum there was often no escape. § 36. Formerly, doctors -were in the bad way of deeming thai their practice was almost everything that could be desired. Stu- dents were told to bleed for this, blister for that, and purge for the otherr ; and if the obstinate patient chose after all to die, why, • E7u:ychp(Bdia, Britlanica, 8th edition, Art. Phrenology. We shall see ]6y and by, what a ' learned experience' is worth.
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