CHAP. XXXIII. On Antimonial Medicines CHAP. XXXIV. On the Hypothesis of Insect Life as a Cause of Disease? CHAP. XXXV. On the present State of Inquiry into the Nervous System PAGE 337 342 360 MEDICAL NOTES, ETC. CHAPTER I. ON MEDICAL EVIDENCE. THERE can be few better tests of a sound understanding, than the right estimation of medical evidence; so various are the complexities it presents, so numerous the sources of error. The subjects of observation are those in which Matter and Mind are concurrently concerned;--Matter, under the complex and subtle organization, whence vitality and all its functions are derived,Mind, in its equally mysterious relations to the organs thus formed; --both subject to numerous agencies from without, both undergoing great changes from disease within. Individualities of each have their influence in creating difficulties, and these amongst the most arduous which beset the path of the physician.* Few cases occur strictly alike, even when the source of disorder is manifestly the same. Primary causes of disease are often wholly obscured by those of secondary kind. Organs remote from each other by place and function are simultaneously disturbed. Translations of morbid action take place from one part to another. Nervous affections and sympathies often assume every character of real disease. While remedial agents are rendered uncertain in effect by the various forms of each disorder, by the idiosyncrasies of the patient, by the difficulty of securing their equal application or transmission into the system, and finally, by the unequal quality of the remedies themselves. These difficulties, the solution of which gives medicine its highest character as a science, can be adequately conceived by the medical man alone. It is the want of this right understanding which makes the mass of mankind so prone to be deceived by imposture of every *Idiosyncrasy, as arising in most cases from inappreciable causes, is the most absolute and inevitable difficulty in medical evidence; since no accumulation of instances, such as might suffice for the removal of all other doubts, can secure us wholly against this source of error. |