登陆注册
5228800000001

第1章 A FRIST PREFACE(1)

The character of the opposition which some of these papers have met with suggests the inference that they contain really important, but unwelcome truths. Negatives multiplied into each other change their sign and become positives. Hostile criticisms meeting together are often equivalent to praise, and the square of fault-finding turns out to be the same thing as eulogy.

But a writer has rarely so many enemies as it pleases him to believe.

Self-love leads us to overrate the numbers of our negative constituency. The larger portion of my limited circle of readers must be quite indifferent to, if not ignorant of, the adverse opinions which have been expressed or recorded concerning any of these Addresses or Essays now submitted to their own judgment. It is proper, however, to inform them, that some of the positions maintained in these pages have been unsparingly attacked, with various degrees of ability, scholarship, and good-breeding. The tone of criticism naturally changes with local conditions in different parts of a country extended like our own, so that it is one of the most convenient gauges of the partial movements in the direction of civilization. It is satisfactory to add, that the views assailed have also been unflinchingly defended by unsought champions, among the ablest of whom it is pleasant to mention, at this moment of political alienation, the Editor of the Charleston Medical Journal.

"Currents and Counter-Currents" was written and delivered as an Oration, a florid rhetorical composition, expressly intended to secure the attention of an audience not easy to hold as listeners.

It succeeded in doing this, and also in being as curiously misunderstood and misrepresented as if it had been a political harangue. This gave it more local notoriety than it might otherwise have attained, so that, as I learn, one ingenious person made use of its title as an advertisement to a production of his own.

The commonest mode of misrepresentation was this: qualified propositions, the whole meaning of which depended on the qualifications, were stripped of these and taken as absolute. Thus, the attempt to establish a presumption against giving poisons to sick persons was considered as equivalent to condemning the use of these substances. The only important inference the writer has been able to draw from the greater number of the refutations of his opinions which have been kindly sent him, is that the preliminary education of the Medical Profession is not always what it ought to be.

One concession he is willing to make, whatever sacrifice of pride it may involve. The story of Massasoit, which has furnished a coral, as it were, for some teething critics, when subjected to a powerful logical analysis, though correct in its essentials, proves to have been told with exceptionable breadth of statement, and therefore (to resume the metaphor) has been slightly rounded off at its edges, so as to be smoother for any who may wish to bite upon it hereafter. In other respects the Discourse has hardly been touched. It is only an individual's expression, in his own way, of opinions entertained by hundreds of the Medical Profession in every civilized country, and has nothing in it which on revision the writer sees cause to retract or modify. The superstitions it attacks lie at the very foundation of Homoeopathy, and of almost every form of medical charlatanism.

Still the mere routinists and unthinking artisans in most callings dislike whatever shakes the dust out of their traditions, and it may be unreasonable to expect that Medicine will always prove an exception to the rule. One half the opposition which the numerical system of Louis has met with, as applied to the results of treatment, has been owing to the fact that it showed the movements of disease to be far more independent of the kind of practice pursued than was agreeable to the pride of those whose self-confidence it abated.

The statement, that medicines are more sparingly used in physicians' families than in most others, admits of a very natural explanation, without putting a harsh construction upon it, which it was not intended to admit. Outside pressure is less felt in the physician's own household; that is all. If this does not sometimes influence him to give medicine, or what seems to be medicine, when among those who have more confidence in drugging than his own family commonly has, the learned Professor Dunglison is hereby requested to apologize for his definition of the word Placebo, or to expunge it from his Medical Dictionary.

同类推荐
  • 识小编

    识小编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清灵宝大法

    上清灵宝大法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清三尊谱箓

    上清三尊谱箓

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Curious Republic of Gondour

    Curious Republic of Gondour

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金箓晚朝仪

    金箓晚朝仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • Inspiration
  • 罪与罪

    罪与罪

    本书选自希区柯克短篇故事集,包括《罪与罪》《三角游戏》《报复》等十余篇短篇小说,文字简洁平实,情节曲折跌宕,结局却出人意料,并且往往让读者有一种身临其境的感觉。小说具有较高的可读性,富于现代特点,符合当下阅读习惯及阅读趋向,颇受年青一代欢迎。
  • 甜吻99次:恶魔少爷宠上瘾

    甜吻99次:恶魔少爷宠上瘾

    【女扮男装、甜宠文、男女双洁、虐渣开挂、宝贝们放心入坑~】――“唔…,混蛋,居然敢吻我?!”苏小冉气鼓鼓着小脸,瞪着某男!什么?还要当他的女佣?妈蛋!“苏小冉,给本少爷倒茶。”“苏小冉,给本少爷捶背。”“苏小冉,给本少爷更衣!”“苏小冉,跟本少爷在一起!”特喵的,占了我便宜还想要我的心……?苏小冉表示:本小姐不干了!!!夜瑾辰一手擒住苏小冉的下巴,俊美的脸放大在她眼里。呼吸的热气时不时喷洒在她脸上,熏得她红晕更加明显。“说,你喜欢我。”坏了,她明明要和恶魔抗战到底的,可是最后怎么还沦陷在他的深吻里了?
  • 长歌倾城花落人故

    长歌倾城花落人故

    皇宫争斗,奇异无疆,侵者大央。乱世苍苍,微光迷离,生死茫茫。情之伤悲,少年白发,何处心安?每个人的命运在世事万殊的世间,都是那般渺小甚微。有人为信仰披荆斩棘,有人为权势不顾一切,有人为情爱付诸性命。故人已故,海棠花落,岁月老去,生命流去。唯留思念,永恒不歇。
  • 天翼翔禅师语录

    天翼翔禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无宠弃后金灿灿

    无宠弃后金灿灿

    云絮会的很简单,那就是招财,敛财和散财。眨着眼睛对刺客说:“你先别杀我,你腰上的青玉翡翠卖不卖?"无辜的看着一脸黑线的皇帝道:"不好意思,你的国家我帮你卖了,比行价高了点,这是你的分红……”黄昏十分,在后宫摆了一个摊子,对妃嫔娘娘们说:“给皇上侍寝一夜三百两,有包月,团购的面谈……”无宠可以,却不能无尊。无爱可以,却不能无财………当云絮揽够大批财富的时候,皇帝还不乖乖的靠上来:“朕亲爱的皇后,借点银子救急吧?”“亲爱的夫君,你上次借的银子利息已经滚到一百倍了,这次你恐怕要拿皇位来抵了呢。”把胸前的爪子拍下去,怒道,“少来这招,色诱早就过时了……”风格轻松幽默,爱情甜蜜浪漫,小打小闹,无伤大雅。每日一更,敬请期待……
  • 撄宁静禅师语录

    撄宁静禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 邪帝追妻:倾国女帝

    邪帝追妻:倾国女帝

    暗煞门中,她浴血归来,欺师灭祖,取而代之。金殿之上,她以大长公主之尊,囚太后,废假帝。她踩着无数的血肉白骨,登上权利巅峰,将那些人所渴望的至尊权利尽控在手。那一日,他以金箭为聘:“这是能调令秦国所有兵力的金箭,以此为聘,嫁我如何?”骄阳之下,美人笑靥如花:“倾国之聘,你敢娶,我就敢嫁。”平八方之乱,定九州乾坤,女帝摄政,至尊天下!
  • 时光的流逝和轮回中会发生什么

    时光的流逝和轮回中会发生什么

    他因为游戏世界崩溃而导致灵魂穿越,来到了一个以高武世界,在这里就将展开魔幻与玄幻的对决,前世今生的秘密……算了,简介真的难写,这个小说是写着玩,练笔的,至于类型的话,类似于玄幻吧,不过不懂一点宅文化有点阅读起来可能会有点难受
  • 无敌强神豪系统

    无敌强神豪系统

    新书《我能绑定亿万妖孽修炼》已在QQ阅读签约发布。别人的小目标是先赚它一个亿,陆辰的小目标是先花他十个亿。(QQ群:699230205)