Substance of a lecture on the applications of chemistry to medicine : introductory to a chemical course in the Newcastle Medical School / by Dr. Glover.

  • Robert Mortimer Glover
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Substance of a lecture on the applications of chemistry to medicine : introductory to a chemical course in the Newcastle Medical School / by Dr. Glover. 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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    We term that observation as distinguished from experiment, where the instances do not admit of being investigated preroga- tively, and where every instance of a genus must be examined before a sreneral conclusion can be arrived at. The logical difference between Medicine and the Physical Sciences, whether of observation or experiment, may be stated to consist in this—That in Medicine we cannot form the pre- liminary genus required for the explication of prerogative rea- soning ; neither can we frame a true and strict general law by any labour. For every human being differs from another in respect of the character required in our inductions. And new (t. e. different) instances are continually occurring. We know, by experience, that a remedy will cause different effects, and a morbid lesion occasion different symptoms in different members of the human race. So that we are obliged to travel from in- stance to instance, founding our application to one, of what has been observed of another, on an assumption of probability. Hence, some have proposed to apply the calculus of probabilities to the generalization of medical facts. Be it observed, that we are not the less bound to carry out our generalizations into prac- tice, because they are founded on this assumption of probability. The general laws of Medicine are as binding on us in practice, as those of Physics; because, if they are rightly framed, we have made every allowance that the case admits of. Now the application of the resources of the Physical Sciences does not enable us to overcome this fundamental difficulty, but it better fits the instances for entering into our calculations. PatNTBO BT WILIIAM DOnOLAS, OBSBRVER OPFICF, OATBSBBAD.
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