登陆注册
5228800000083

第83章 IV(16)

I have been in relation successively with the English and American evacuant and alterative practice, in which calomel and antimony figured so largely that, as you may see in Dr. Jackson's last "Letter," Dr. Holyoke, a good representative of sterling old- fashioned medical art, counted them with opium and Peruvian bark as his chief remedies; with the moderately expectant practice of Louis; the blood-letting "coup sur coup" of Bouillaud; the contra-stimulant method of Rasori and his followers; the anti-irritant system of Broussais, with its leeching and gum-water; I have heard from our own students of the simple opium practice of the renowned German teacher, Oppolzer; and now I find the medical community brought round by the revolving cycle of opinion to that same old plan of treatment which John Brown taught in Edinburgh in the last quarter of the last century, and Miner and Tully fiercely advocated among ourselves in the early years of the present. The worthy physicians last mentioned, and their antagonist Dr. Gallup, used stronger language than we of these degenerate days permit ourselves. "The lancet is a weapon which annually slays more than the sword," says Dr. Tully.

"It is probable that, for forty years past, opium and its preparations have done seven times the injury they have rendered benefit, on the great scale of the world," says Dr. Gallup.

What is the meaning of these perpetual changes and conflicts of medical opinion and practice, from an early antiquity to our own time? Simply this: all "methods" of treatment end in disappointment of those extravagant expectations which men are wont to entertain of medical art. The bills of mortality are more obviously affected by drainage, than by this or that method of practice. The insurance companies do not commonly charge a different percentage on the lives of the patients of this or that physician. In the course of a generation, more or less, physicians themselves are liable to get tired of a practice which has so little effect upon the average movement of vital decomposition. Then they are ready for a change, even if it were back again to a method which has already been tried, and found wanting.

Our practitioners, or many of them, have got back to the ways of old Dr. Samuel Danforth, who, as it is well known, had strong objections to the use of the lancet. By and by a new reputation will be made by some discontented practitioner, who, tired of seeing patients die with their skins full of whiskey and their brains muddy with opium, returns to a bold antiphlogistic treatment, and has the luck to see a few patients of note get well under it. So of the remedies which have gone out of fashion and been superseded by others. It can hardly be doubted that they will come into vogue again, more or less extensively, under the influence of that irresistible demand for change just referred to.

Then will come the usual talk about a change in the character of disease, which has about as much meaning as that concerning "old-fashioned snow-storms." "Epidemic constitutions" of disease mean something, no doubt; a great deal as applied to malarious affections; but that the whole type of diseases undergoes such changes that the practice must be reversed from depleting to stimulating, and vice versa, is much less likely than that methods of treatment go out of fashion and come in again. If there is any disease which claims its percentage with reasonable uniformity, it is phthisis. Yet I remember that the reverend and venerable Dr. Prince of Salem told me one Commencement day, as I was jogging along towards Cambridge with him, that he recollected the time when that disease was hardly hardly known; and in confirmation of his statement mentioned a case in which it was told as a great event, that somebody down on "the Cape" had died of "a consumption." This story does not sound probable to myself, as I repeat it, yet I assure you it is true, and it shows how cautiously we must receive all popular stories of great changes in the habits of disease.

Is there no progress, then, but do we return to the same beliefs and practices which our forefathers wore out and threw away? I trust and believe that there is a real progress. We may, for instance, return in a measure to the Brunonian stimulating system, but it must be in a modified way, for we cannot go back to the simple Brunonian pathology, since we have learned too much of diseased action to accept its convenient dualism. So of other doctrines, each new Avatar strips them of some of their old pretensions, until they take their fitting place at last, if they have any truth in them, or disappear, if they were mere phantasms of the imagination.

In the mean time, while medical theories are coming in and going out, there is a set of sensible men who are never run away with by them, but practise their art sagaciously and faithfully in much the same way from generation to generation. From the time of Hippocrates to that of our own medical patriarch, there has been an apostolic succession of wise and good practitioners. If you will look at the first aphorism of the ancient Master you will see that before all remedies he places the proper conduct of the patient and his attendants, and the fit ordering of all the conditions surrounding him. The class of practitioners I have referred to have always been the most faithful in attending to these points. No doubt they have sometimes prescribed unwisely, in compliance with the prejudices of their time, but they have grown wiser as they have grown older, and learned to trust more in nature and less in their plans of interference. I believe common opinion confirms Sir James Clark's observation to this effect.

同类推荐
  • 佛说难提释经

    佛说难提释经

    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。
  • 太上玄一真人说三途五苦劝诫经

    太上玄一真人说三途五苦劝诫经

    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。
  • 埋忧续集

    埋忧续集

    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。
  • 报恩论

    报恩论

    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。
  • 撰集百缘经

    撰集百缘经

    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
  • 三国刘备之妙笔生花

    三国刘备之妙笔生花

    调皮捣蛋在人间,起起伏伏具开颜。若能众生安好,名声何其渺小……
  • 改变80后男生的30堂智慧课

    改变80后男生的30堂智慧课

    《改变80后男生的30堂智慧课》这本书就从不同的方面阐述了80后男生所面临的挑战,使那些还在徘徊的80后男生知道此事应该做什么,应该怎样做。同时,本书向读者展现了一个成功80后男生应该具有的智慧,只要你认真学习本书的课程,你就会成为一名成功的男人。
  • 刘墉人生三部曲(全集)

    刘墉人生三部曲(全集)

    《人生不过一场爱》这是一本刘墉献给迷茫中独自面对成长与爱的年轻人的温情告白书。本书收集了刘墉先生关于亲情、爱情、友情的经典之作,讲述关于爱的人生与意义,以及为什么要有爱,该如何去学会爱。《成功只能靠自己》这是一本刘墉写给所有希望获得成功却又对成功感到迷茫困惑的人的勉励书,让你不惧前行、不怕跌撞,拼命做个人上人。每个人都能成功,每一种青春都五色斑斓,正因为年轻,所以我们要把握这冲力、把握这浪漫,多看多学,以不辜负上天赐给我们的青春。《此生何必从头来》这是一本刘墉献给所有受尽呵护但不得不独自奋斗与成长的年轻人的人生箴言书,让你心态安然、不骄不躁,丰富地过一生。
  • 金簪小小仙

    金簪小小仙

    旁人叫我一声金簪仙子,就无疑是提醒多一次,我是如何被金簪插到灰飞烟灭的。
  • 想问就问吧大全集

    想问就问吧大全集

    本书汇集古今中外人们喜闻乐见的文化知识,内容涵盖了历史、文化 、教育、语言典故、哲学、艺术、人体生物、医学卫生、地球科学、地理 、天文、自然科学、人口政治、军事法律、工农环保科学、交通运输旅游 、体育邮政、经济贸易、金融财政等各个方面。这些内容系我们必备知识的浓缩和精华,它将是我们一生中不可多得的财富。本书在编撰过程中,力求摈弃枯燥乏味的传统词条说教形式,以新颖有趣的全新问答形式活泼地呈现出来,突出全面性、知识性和趣味性。
  • 一不如二空月篇

    一不如二空月篇

    第一世终究还是比不过第二世的.————————————————第一世。“你爱我吗?仿若结局不是我想要的,那便别说了”“……”许久,她才反应过来为什么没有一个答案:结局不是她想要的。————————————————先声明:这篇文只写第一世,第二世是不会写的ovo.大概第一世完结了才会撸第一世。
  • 中国近代史

    中国近代史

    无可争议的权威著作,蒋介石赏识的历史学家理性讲述近代中国史。本书以中国的近代化为线索,认为“中国人能否近代化将关系国家兴亡”,主要阐述了面对“数千年未有之大变局”,近代人所做的自强努力及其失败的原因,进而提出“近代化国防不但需要近代的交通、教育、经济,并又需要近代化的政治和国民,半新半旧是不中用的。”本书构建的史学框架和断代史体系,曾引领了近代史研究的风潮,为后来的研究者所推崇,被称为近代中国史研究的开山之作。
  • 山海地仙

    山海地仙

    明末清初之际,王朝鼎革,战火纷飞,外有异族入主中原,内有反王厮杀争鼎。中华各处杀气恒天,民不聊生,人间正气日衰,潜伏在华夏各处深山密林,人迹罕至之处的邪恶力量渐渐苏醒,为祸一方百姓。修道之人身逢乱世,自当下山卫道。丹阳,道远师徒二人涉险远,降妖除魔,寻访古迹传说,大禹的天极移山,地下的黄幽地府,上古凶神秘教,巴人无底墓洞,契丹和女真千年恩怨,西极葱岭云中之国....上古宝器,凶神,妖魔轮番登场,天地命运居然系在一人之身....
  • 时间与昼1零境归来

    时间与昼1零境归来

    “未来的我们,会被时间遗忘吗?“拥有全世界又如何,我还是失去了你。”控制了时间,就握住了你的手……
  • 关于我是神之键羽渡尘这件事

    关于我是神之键羽渡尘这件事

    你便是我,我便是你即使自己已经不再是自己但至少现在还活着――祈羽(黎羽尘)