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
Catalogue details

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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    heat-force, and tliat into steam-power : and as this is the one end of the machine and the fuel, anything which aids the Engine to exjpeiid its force (as forgetting to shut off the steam) would be—colce ! If this comparison, which is in all things parallel to the argument, is not simple enough for medical-men, I must try to give a simpler one. The argument of M.D. is as follows:— 1. The conversion of food into the organism is the condition of HAVING/orce. 2. The conversion of organism into NON-organism is the condition of evolving force. 3. Ergo, whatever evolves force (like alcohol) is food ! This syllogism of course, belongs to no ' figure ' but one— the ridiculous and absurd— but I am not responsible for it, and cannot help it. The first and second premisses are true, but they are not major and minor, and therefore cannot warrant any conclusion, much less the fatuous one of the physician. If the reader applies the syllogism to.an Ass,—and substitutes for ' like alcohol,' the words, ' like a spur,' or ' lilce a vjhip,' he will perceive the true scope of the pompous looking argument. No ass, however, save a bipedal one, would ever be deceived by it—the quadrupedal ass would be too wise to exchange even his Thistle for this Anstiean form of food! § 38. Professor Latcock, thus discourses on Disease :— Noxious agents are formed within the organism dm'ing the natm-al processes, but in the state of health they are eliminated as rapidly as they are formed, constituting the secretions [excretions ?]. If they are not eliminated, but accumulate in the organism, they cause disorder and disease [i.e. they inter- fere with nutrition, for mal-nutrition equals ???aZady]. Again, noxious agents may be received from without (such as poisons, irritants, etc.), and these will generally operate in like manner as the retained secretions. In either case Nature seeks the restoration to health by attempts at elimination or removal. Unfortunately, civilized men are in a condition of body un- favourable to the exercise of the natural restorative powers.* This seems pretty near the truth, because the excitements of a false civilization have weakened the stamina of men, and the « Encydopxdia BriUanica, 8th ed. Art. Medicine (1857). He says— Medicine expresses the [artificial] 7?icci?is available in the Art of Heahng. Surely not! A bandage, a crutch, a tourniquet, a splint, are not medicines, hut adjuncts to the art. A ' medicine ' is tliat thing which heals, or cures, ia popular acceptation : otherwise, everything is medicine; food as much so as physic, light as much bo as quinine or iron.
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