Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim.

  • Spurzheim, Johann Gaspard, 1776-1832.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of the objections made in Britain against the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim / by J.G. Spurzheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The physician, besides, is placed in circumstances the most conducive to a profound and certain knowledge of man. No one has such opportunities of observing men at all times, and in all situations. He alone is present during the night and the day, to witness the mo9t inti- mate concerns, and the most secret events of domestic life. Good and bad men, when sick, with difficulty con- ceal from him their true sentiments. Who desires not the friendship of the man, whom he trusts with his own life, or with that of his wife, and of his children? To such a man, as knowing all that belongs to our nature, we unfold the most secret thoughts, and we acknowledge our frailties and our errors, in order that he may judge truly concerning our situations. There is consequently no man more called upon, no man more necessitated to study mankind, than the physician. I leave it now to the reader, and to those who practise the healing art, to decide, whether a person contributes to the celebrity of his profession by inculcating such doctrines ? Thus, only according to a philosophy, which states that every one may take his own consciousness as the mea- surement of that of all men, are our British antagonists excusable—according to such a philosophy alone, is it unnecessary for them to study the spirit of our inquiries. As they cannot raise their minds above mechanical forms and shades of colour-; as they do not even feel the neces- sity of considering the parts of the nervous system in connexion ; as they even invent artificial divisions; how could their judgment of our investigations be sound, equitable, and just ?