Essays on the most important diseases of women. Part 1, Puerperal fever; [and] On the method of induction and its results in medical science / by Robert Ferguson.

  • Ferguson, Robert, 1799-1865.
Date:
1839
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the most important diseases of women. Part 1, Puerperal fever; [and] On the method of induction and its results in medical science / by Robert Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    of the effects of remedies. If to perceive truth amid a conflict of errors, and to be alone in such percep- tion, be a mark of genius, to Gooch the award must be madei The effect on action is immense. It re- conciled jarring principles, and made all that mass of cases and opinions, which had vexed the inquirer, instantly intelligible and available. Whether he knew or not the first cause of the malady he has delineated, it is impossible to read his masterly essay on this subject, without being convinced that not a word can be added to his principles of treat- ment, so sagaciously deduced from a cautious em- piricism. Looking wholly to practice. Dr. Gooch classed : puerperal fever under the two heads of inflammatory ' and typhoid, and the division is eminently practical; for though it throws but little light on the nature of i the malady, it is a most definite guide to its treatment. ] Even for practical purposes, however, this arrange- -i ment is limited. A certain number of cases of puer- peral fever require a mixed treatment, and others the ii use of remedial measures, which soothe or alter the f symptoms, without being strictly stimulant or the j reverse. I have said that the division of puerp>eral i fevers into sthenic and asthenic, throws little or no i) light on their nature. We neither know how this want of vital power arises, nor in what organic | alterations it is based. Is it the poison that is | more virulent? or is it the constitution which |j
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