Introductory lecture delivered before the medical class in Castleton Medical College at the opening of the fall session 1842 / by David M. Reese.
- Reese, David Meredith, 1800-1861.
- Date:
- 1842
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Introductory lecture delivered before the medical class in Castleton Medical College at the opening of the fall session 1842 / by David M. Reese. 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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![its nature, and exhibit, to you the direct and immediate bearing it has, upon the application of all your other knowledge to the ac- tual business of the profession. The very name of my department clearly implies, what it is im- portant you should realize at the very threshold of the course, that the Practice of Medicine is guided by principles, and hence regula- ted by theories which are both rational and intelligible. Were it .otherwise, this department would neither be susceptible of being f aught, nor worthy of being learned. It would not only degenerate into a mere art, but it would be inferior to the meanest of all arts, and utterly beneath the attention of the votaries of science. In- deed i; would be a palpable misnomer to call it a science, if it were without hxed and determinate principles, the knowledge of which can be imparted and acquired. An enlightened theory is necessary not merely as a foundation on which a general system of rational niedical practice can be erected, adapted to the science as a whole; but in relation to individual diseases, and the employment of reme- dies in every given example of human suffering, an intelligible and rational theory can alone be a safe guide amid the intricate phases ,of morbid action, whether functional, organic, or complicated. It is never to be forgotten, however, that while an enjightened the- pry can alone guide us to a safe and correct practice, such theory must be itself based on facts ; and no theory is entitled to our respect which is not constructed by an accumulation of facts, and a series o,f rigid inductions from those facts, by minds capable of careful and ilogica] scrutiny. Moreover, these facts must themselves be subjec» ted to close and critical inquiry, with the vieiv to that accurate dis- crimination which shall preclude the semblance of error. This dil- igent scrutiny is peculiarly necessary in a science which should be rigidly one of induction, an.d especially when as in Medicine ther£ is so much justice in the admonition of one of the master minds in our ranks, who declares, as the result of Lis investigation, that ''ninety-nine in a hundred of medical facts are medical lies. But the work of discovering and exploding these false facts, as well as the specious theories which have been based upon them, has been, for the most part happily performed to our hands. Men of the jnost gifted minds who have ever blessed our world, have consecra- ted their genius and toil to the examination of medical theories, and ihe facts upon which they have been professedly founded. The re- sults of their labors have been recorded and transmitted to us, con- stituting the history of (he past; and we are thus provided with fa](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21149665_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
