On the therapeutic forces : an effort to consider the action of medicines in the light of the modern doctrine of the conservation of force / by Thomas J. Mays.

  • Mays, Thomas J. (Thomas Jefferson), 1846-1918.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the therapeutic forces : an effort to consider the action of medicines in the light of the modern doctrine of the conservation of force / by Thomas J. Mays. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    12/152
    law or principle. Notwithstanding the prevalence of this opinion among the profession, I believe that one of the fundamental principles in the successful prac- tice of medicine is well-scrounded theory, and even those to whom the term theory conveys an unpleasant odor are daily guilty of indulging in the very thing they stigmatize, and, in fact, cannot escape it if they think at all for themselves. For the crudest empiric bleeds to relieve the blood pressure of an inflamed part, administers cathartics to cool the body, and gives quinia to diminish fever temperature. To theorize is to think—is to give a reason for our actions, and when a medical man treats a patient he is presumed to have at least some idea or theory of the action of the medi- cine which he introduces, as well as the disease which he is striving to combat, or otherwise it is blind practice. The chief aim of the physician is to alleviate and remedy human suffering, and his success in accom- plishing this noble end will depend directly on a true knowledge of the laws of therapeutics; and if this small volume will advance such knowledge to even the slightest appreciable degree, I shall feel more than rewarded. In conclusion I will add, not, however, for the pur- pose of evading criticism, that this paper was origi- nally intended for a journal article; and had not its size precluded its publication as such, it would not have appeared in its present form. Upper Lehigh, Pa., April llth, 1878.