The progress of medicine / by D. Dyce Brown.

  • Brown, D. Dyce.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The progress of medicine / by D. Dyce Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    appreciated even in this age of hygienic medicine. Laennec had introduced auscultation,—not, however, without candidly pointing out that ho had found a passage in Hippocrates which showed that he had in a way used immediate auscultation. If Sir William Hamilton had fully considered the significance of such discoveries as the above in the light of the unrivalled learning which he possessed, he might have framed his question on less ungracious-looking terms. Still”-—let us observe this from the Lancet—“ still there was enough of antiquity about the chief parts of medical practice when Sir William's question was framed to make it not altogether unreasonable. The further point remains : Allowing that Sir William’s question was not altogether unreasonable in 1832, was there any justification for Dr. Begbie reviewing it in 1875.” Unfortunately, it turns out that the question was not put in 1832, but in 1852, when the essay was republished along with others, and was repeated with the addition of further quotations from medical authorities in the follow¬ ing year, 1853. It thus seems that in spite of the dis¬ coveries named by the Lancet as showing what great progress had been made in 2000 years, this leading journal admits that Sir William’s query was “ not alto¬ gether unreasonable.5’ Or in other words, it is only the progress made in the last forty years which prevents the question being a reasonable one. What this progress amounts to, we shall see presently from Dr. Begbie. The Lancet then goes on to say that Dr. Begbie “ had an easy task, and would have had a still easier one if he had not spent a large portion of his address in magnifying, not unjustly, the wisdom of Hippocrates and the excel¬ lence of his practice.” In other words, this magnanimous journal considers that if the excellencies of the practice of Hippocrates had been more slightly dealt with, or kept more in the background, so much the more evident would seem the progress since his time. But Dr. Begbie is too honest for this. He sees that if the progress in thera¬ peutics since the time of Hippocrates is to be rightly and A O A /v
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