Introductory address delivered at the opening of the session 1870-71 / by Alexander Fleming.

  • Fleming, Alexander, 1823-1875.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered at the opening of the session 1870-71 / by Alexander Fleming. 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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    deplorable want of that knowledge of the science of his profession^ without which the practice of the art is dangerous empiricism. It is the recognition of this great fact, of the complex and varied nature of every pathological condition to which man is subject^ which makes us regard with suspicion the majority of so-called specifics. There are doubtless certain drugs which neutralise certain poisons, or correct certain unhealthy conditions of the human body; but unfortunately in the hands of the ignorant or inexperienced^ these may be as powerful for evil as for good, from the want of that enlightened and educated power of observation which enables the watchful physician to detect and provide for each unforeseen complication as it arises. Were the public more cognizant of this truth, it w;ould put a stop to a large amount of evil which now exists. The ignorant and inexperienced would be roused to spme sense of the danger of advising their friends to use S(pme medicine, or undergo some mode of cure from which they may have derived benefit, being all the time probably in total ignorance of the complex nature of the ailments which they are more likely to aggravate than reHeve; and amateur doctoring would be looked upon as too dangerous a pastime even for the most adventurous. It is a sincere conviction of the great value of this physiological truth, that induces the man of science, experience and principle, earnestly to warn his patients against the dangers of those infallible cures and universal' remedies with which the charlatan and the knave delude the weak and the unwary. To the clever, bati;''unscrupulous member of the medical profession, it'is an easy matter to play upon the credidity of men, and
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