Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Oration on the Guidance of a Sound Philosophical Spirit in the Investigations of Medical Science: Read Before the Cincinnati Medical Society, January 4, 1837
Fundamental to the whole host of follies and errors which infested medical science for so long a succession of years, was this one great, pervading, ruinous misconception - that truth could be elicited by the subtle workings of the mind, independent of the teachings Of experience, - that the man of genius could elaborate in the workshop of his own acute and vigorous faculties a just and satisfactory ex planation of all the phenomena of nature. Deserting the only path of all correct views of the anatomy and physiology of man, and of the diseases to which his body is liable - the path of observation they indulged in the most extravagant conceptions of the organiza tion and actions of the living animal economy. To be sure the plan of attaining their fancied elevation Of knowledge was a very com penduous one, - in which no task was imposed on their industry of reseach'! Immured in the closet, each one could fabricate at pleas ure, the gossamer webs of his own Speculation, and spangle them over with the gaudiest tinsel of a false Iogic.
We glory in the present more certain state of medical science; we rejoice in the presence and agency of a sound philosopical Spirit, which is every where in busy, ceaseless force and activity in the discovery of new truths, the detection of old errors, and the addi tional illumination of the admitted doctrines and facts of our science. Our minds, in confiding trust of the onward march of medical knowledge to still higher and higher approximations to certainty, dart forward to the disclosures of coming years. We feel a rejoicing satisfaction, dilating our bosoms, as we contemplate the triumphant progress of medicine in future years. Guided and inspirited by the genius of a sound, authentic, elevating philosophy, medicine will achieve still greater victories over disease, and diffuse in a still wider and wider circle the benefits of its curative in?uence.
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