Medical science and the medical profession in Europe and the United States : an introductory lecture / by Harvey Lindsly.

  • Harvey Lindsley
Date:
1840
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical science and the medical profession in Europe and the United States : an introductory lecture / by Harvey Lindsly. 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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    compound effect of climate and general vigor of con- stitution, is evident from the further curious fact, that an Englishman in Germany requires less medicine than at home, although still more than the native—thus forming a medium between his former habits and those of the people around him. The same principle is ex- hibited in the operation of medicine on the inhabitants of the Continent, when in England—their former doses being there quite inert and inefficient. These remarks are particularly applicable to purgatives and opium, with regard to which the experiment has frequently been made; and I have no doubt that further observation will show it to be true of most, if not all other medicines. The diseases of our country partake largely of the violent inflammatory character of those of England, attributable, no doubt, to the variableness of our climate, its sudden and unexpected changes of temperature, and the more substantial and abundant fare universally en- joyed by our citizens. It is natural to suppose that the peasant of Europe, who tastes of animal food, probably, but once a week, and lives the rest of the time on watery, innutritious, vegetable aliment, should be sub- ject to a class of diseases very different in their nature, and requiring, in their treatment, a very different course, from the hardy, robust American, who eats abundantly of animal food, perhaps three times a day. After making all due allowances, however, on ac- count of difference of climate and constitution, I still believe there is less efficiency, and, therefore, less skill exhibited, in the treatment of disease on the Continent of Europe, (with, perhaps, a few exceptions, to which I shall hereafter refer,) than in Great Britain or this country.
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