Gout and rheumatic gout : a new method of cure / by John W. Foakes.

  • Foakes, John Weston.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gout and rheumatic gout : a new method of cure / by John W. Foakes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    “ present day, although the abuse of this drug, has been decried, “ its employment is still thought necessary in some form or other “ of hepatic disease. We shall not enter upon the discussion of “ its merits or demerits—the wonderful cures which it has effected, “ according to some ; or the injured health and shattered consti- “ tutions which it has produced, according to others. “There can be no doubt that the answer to the question, “ whether mercury did or did not increase the biliary secretion, “ had become one of paramount importance; but the inquiry “ involved labour and difficulties which few were prepared to “encounter. We are proud to say that a Committee of members “ of the British Medical Association at length undertook the task ; “ and their report ” [previously inserted] “ has definitely deter- “ mined that mercury, in whatever manner, dose, or form it may “ be administered, has not the slightest infiuence in increasing “ the flow of bile from the liver. “ ‘ If,’ says the reporter, ‘ the refutation of a wide-spread error “be as important as the establishment of a new truth, the “practical advantage of demonstrating that mercury is not a “cholagogue cannot be too highly estimated.’ We agree with “ the remark, however, made by Mr. Flower, as President of the “Physiological Section of the British Association last year at “ Norwich, where the Eeport was read ; viz., that this is under- “ stating the value of the result. The refutation of a wide-spread “ error of this kind is much more important than the establishment “ of a new truth, inasmuch as the injury inflicted by the universal “ assumption of a false rule of medical practice produces injury “ which it is impossible to estimate. Whatever opinion, there- “ fore, be held as to the value of mercurials in hepatic diseases, “ no one can doubt that, looking at their powerful effects on the “ human frame for good or for evil, the conclusions involved in “ the Report, if correct, constitute an immense gain for medical “ knowledge. * * * * n K