Therapeutics founded upon organopathy and antipraxy / by William Sharp.
- William Sharp
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Therapeutics founded upon organopathy and antipraxy / by William Sharp. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
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![phrase) in heroical quantitieSj and in what seemed to them most skilful combinations ; these were taught with great precision by Dr. Paris, a President of the Royal College of Physicians, in his Pharmacologia. Not un- frequently, however, physicians treated their patients, as unskilful sportsmen try to kill game, as one of them told Sir Astley Cooper,— I put into my gun plenty of shot, in the hope that they will scatter so much that some will hit. I aim at all the emunctuaries at once ! And what about medicines during the reign of the de- bility theory—the feeding time ? The answer to this ques- tion shall be given by the Practitioner^ a Journal justly looked upon as one of the best and most practical of the medical periodicals of the present day:— The system of our leading hospital physicians and surgeons ... is physiological medicine, characterised by a strong belief in the sanative powers—the vis medicatrix—of nature, and very great scepticism as regards the utility of drugs: it takes care of, supports, and amuses the patient, while nature cures his disease; [or until death comes] . . . it admits the existence of a few specifics, such as quinine for ague, [for which the profession is indebted to a Spanish Countess, not to physiology], which are given quite empirically, without any notion or theory of their modus operandi, of how or why they produce their effects. This is said in regard to the choice of the medicine ; then, in regard to the choice of the dose it is said :— The truth is, there is no principle, or law, or mathematical certainty about the matter. We [the italics are the writer's] frankly admit that we give drugs quite empirically; we give a, ±, etc., because experience](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21446210_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
