Address of Earl Stanhope, president of the Medico-Botanical Society, for the anniversary meeting, January 16, 1831.

  • Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address of Earl Stanhope, president of the Medico-Botanical Society, for the anniversary meeting, January 16, 1831. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    reasonably be expected to be found more in Vegetables 'than in Minerals. Even in acute disorders the repetition of a dose may be preferable to one more powerful in its immediate activity; and the principle is often illustrated .in nature, that an effect is produced, not by the force but by the frequency with which the cause operates, and ‘could not, in some cases, be produced otherwise with safety. The celebrated Dr. Tronchin, a disciple of Boer- haave, removed with ease and expedition, by administering overy half hour a small quantity of coarse Sugar dis- solved in tepid water, a visceral obstruction which had continued for many days, and which became very painful and alai-ming; biit if a violent remedy had been employed great injury might have resulted to the patient. As the circulation of the blood and animal heat are gradually to be restored to a frozen limb, which would be destroyed if it were to be suddenly exposed to the warmth of a fire, so, in many cases, would it be imprudent to employ too violent or too immediate a counteraction to the evil which it is intended to remove. The gentle oj>eration of some ve- getable medicines, far from being an objection to tiieir use, ought, in some cases, to be considered as a recommenr dation, and may peculiarly qualify them as alteratives, for which several of those Plants may have been designed which are not much distinguished by their sensible qualities. Some vegetable substances are as powerful in their operation as any which are furnished by the Mineral Kingdom ; but it would be a rash and unfounded conclur sion, that those which appear to be feeble are, therefore, of no value. Some of them may have been intended by Providence for external use, and to be employed by the Surgeon more than by the Physician, as Vulneraries, as Styptics, as Emollients, or for other topical applications.
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