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.

    78/148 page 76
    [76] v.—OF DOCTORS AND DRINK. § 61. The special and practical purpose of my present discussion does not lead me to consider whether a Science of Medicine is possible, regarded as a drug-system; I am only concerned to affirm, in view of the chaos, inconsistency, and uncertainty of Medicine as it is, that I rely for cure, in the great majority of curable diseases, not upon physic, but upon food, rest, exercise, and the varied application of heat and •cold, through the agency of air and water. These famish the naturally-adapted matter and media of vital organism, and therefore of healthy nutrition on the one hand, and of adequate excretion on the other. Whatever interferes with this adapta- tion lays the fotmdation of disease, by deteriorating the ultimate tissues in which force is reposited, and by which function is performed. K this be the law of life and force, nothing can wisely be used as permanent Medicine which will lessen vital- function, impede secretion, or corrupt that pabulum of the body out of which its varied structures are built-up. Hy- pothetically, and at best, then, physic is an alnormal and exceptional thing, to be employed only in rare emergencies and for momentary ends. All (so called) physic that is twt really food, is literally poison—and in this aspect of the case, its sole hypothetical justification is, that it produces a tempo- rary structural injury to avert a more permanent functional disturbance which would terminate in a more dangerous and permanent injury of the organism. To use a figure of speech, when the coach is going at the p)roper-speed on normal ground, it would be a foolish loss of force to put on the drag, or apply the lash; but if rushing madly down a steep and dangerous 'decHvity, it is wise to put on the hrealc to avoid an upset at the bottom ; 'or if ascending a short, steep hill with an inadequate team, it may be also wise to save time and force by what is called 'the stimulation of the whip.' Is it not apparent, however, that to make this into a dietetic (i.e. daily) system in the ordinary working of one's horses—to keep-up the -* whipping,' or to keep-on ' the drag '—would inevitably end
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