Modern surgery and its making : a tribute to Listerism / by C.W. Saleeby.

  • Saleeby, C. W. (Caleb Williams), 1878-1940.
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Modern surgery and its making : a tribute to Listerism / by C.W. Saleeby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/376 (page 97)
    Mr. Paget has become widely conversant with such investigations [‘ researches involving experi- ments upon the lower animals ’], and has been deeply impressed with the greatness of the benefits which they have conferred upon mankind, and the giievous mistake that is made by those who desire to suppress them. -The action of these well-meaning persons is based upon ignorance . . . they deny that any good has ever resulted from the researches which they condemn. How far such statements are from the truth will be evident to those who peruse this book. . . . from the discovery of the circulation of the blood onwards, our knowledge of healthy animal function has been mainly derived from experiments on animals. The chief bulk of the work is devoted to the class of investigations which are most frequent at the present day ; and it shows what a flood of light has been already thrown by bacteriology upon the nature of human disease and the means of combating it. The chapter on the Action of Drugs will be to many a startling disclosure of the gross ignorance that prevailed among physicians even in the earlier part of last century. The great revolution that has since taken place is no doubt largely due to ad- vances in sciences other than Biology, especially Chemistry. But it could not have attained its present proportions without the ever-increasing knowledge of Physiology, based on experiments on animals ; and Mr. Paget shows how large a share these have had in the direct investigation of articles of the Materia Medica. “ The concluding part of the volume discusses