Medical study : an introductory address ... / [John Addington Symonds].

  • John Addington Symonds
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical study : an introductory address ... / [John Addington Symonds]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be considered under either of these heads; first, be¬ cause it is not essential to the cure and relief of dis¬ ease ; and secondly, because it is at the same time intrinsically a part of professional knowledge,—I allude to forensic medicine, or the application of medical science to legislative and judicial inquiries. It is one thing, as you well know, to have a fact stored in the memory; and another, to apply it to a practical purpose : and moreover, it is very easy to forget those facts of which we are not in the habit of making use, or of seeing frequently exemplified. Now this remark is particularly true with regard to a great number of facts which belong to legal medi¬ cine ;—and the advantage of making it a separate science is, that of exhibiting the bearings of facts which might otherwise be overlooked. Not every thing belonging to anatomy and physiology can be said to belong likewise to medicine. What use, for example, except for juridical purposes, is likely to be made of such information, as that shortly after birth, the ductus arteriosus assumes a conical form, that the desiccation of the funis umbilicalis occupies a certain space of time, and that at a certain period after submersion, a green spot appears over the sternum ? From this intermediate subject of medical study, we pass to that which I have characterized as a cer¬ tain degree of intellectual culture, appropriate to the medical character. Now to determine what that degree is to which you should aspire, and with which you should be content, is a matter of some nicety.