The claims of medicine to be regarded a science : an introductory lecture delivered at the opening of the third session in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, (31st October, 1853) / by Paul F. Eve.

  • Paul F. Eve
Date:
1853
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The claims of medicine to be regarded a science : an introductory lecture delivered at the opening of the third session in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, (31st October, 1853) / by Paul F. Eve. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ]y digested and arranged. Medicine is a part of natural history which comprehends all we know of the opera- tions of nature. It is both and art and science. The knowledge we posses of morbid affections and their cura- tive indications is the science; the application of means to preserve health and cure disease is the art. Art observes and collects facts; science arranges and deduces conclu- sions from them. The principles of a science may be self-evident, or de- monstrable or only inferential; they may be well-estab- lished, positive or only probable. In arriving at knowl- edge all the mind requires is the recognition of facts, the cognizance of things really true. If perception, reason and judgment are satisfied, we admit the truth though it can neither be exhibited or proved. As a science-we be- lieve medicine is based upon certain elementary and practical branches, which of themselves are distinct sciences, either self-evident, clearly demonstrable or readily to be inferred. This [ propose to establish, and think it can be done plainly, easily and certainly from what we know of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Therapeutics. 1. My first argument to prove medicine a science is drawn from the indisputable fact that we have a thorough, minute and comprehensive knowledge of the structure of the human body. This is the result of patient, care- ful, persevering dissections carried on for centuries. So perfect now is our knowledge of anatomy, that it embraces the minutest details of the whole organization of man; the bones, muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, ligaments, all the internal organs and the different tissues; in- cluding the recent revelations made by chemistry and the microscope applied to every fluid and solid of which we are composed. It is well known that superstition, prejudice and a great repugnance to handle the dead, long opposed a minute examination of the human system. Aristotle expressly states he had a horror for dissection; an instinctive ex- pression often heard even in our day. We naturally