Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Introductory Lecture Delivered in the Castleton Medical College, March 8, 1842
The Art of Healing is of ancient date. From the earliest ages men have sought to alleviate the pain of disease, and to ward off the stroke of death. In primitive times, rude as the art was, it assumed so high a dignity as to be associated with re ligion; the Priests were the first Physicians. And although a tolerablv rational system of practice was created by Hippocrates two thousand years ago, it is certain that up to a comparatively late period, even among civilized nations, to possess skill in the use of remedies was to secure the reputation, whether for good or evil, of mastering inexplicable powers, or of communing with the mysterious beings of another world. The Science of Medi cine is of later growth. The great Greek whom I have named, did, it is true, establish the fundamental principle of making ob servation the only rule in the treatment of disease; and since his time, in the course of centuries, there have been, as in all other branches of human knowledge, great men who have observed closely, thought profoundly, and by single discoveries assisted in preparing the way forthe true developement of the Science; but it is only within a very limited period, that the Newtonian prin ciple of arguing from phenomena without feigning hypotheses has been applied to this most important department of Science. Unfortunately for us, says Dr. Gedman, the perfection of' our Science is neither in proportion to its age nor to the revolu tions it has undergone. Yet this liability to change, both in doc trines and practice, is rapidly diminishing, as the diffusion of knowledge is promoted and extended by a more correct study of Nature. The charge of being a conjectural Art, must, at no dis tant period cease to be applicable, and the resources of our Sci ence know neither limit or circumscription, if all who engage in its cultivation be properly zealous in their exertions and true to the trusts they assume. There are at this day, Gentlemen, in our profession, many men who are thus true to the high trusts which they assumed on entering it. Through their labors the stock of medical truths is dai increasing, and that, too, by the application of the only legitimate mode of enlarging the bounda ries of our Science, an extensive induction of facts, the results of patient observation. And I have made these remarks, in or der to impress upon your minds, now, on the threshold of your studies, that the very basis of your Medical Education, is to be laid in the doctrine that our Science is an assemblage offacts as certained by observation. These may be combined into systems, or, for the sake of clearness and method, - generalized under some form of theory, but all speculation beyond these limits is less than nothing and vanity. Men may theorise elsewhere, but here they must not; the day for Medical hypotheses is over, The reproach of uncertainty has been deserved long enough.
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