An introductory lecture to a course of lectures on clinical medicine, delivered in the theatre of the London Hospital, Saturday, January 31, 1829 / by James A. Gordon.

Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture to a course of lectures on clinical medicine, delivered in the theatre of the London Hospital, Saturday, January 31, 1829 / by James A. Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    occasion, allude only to two points, attention to which is indispensable, in order to render our joint labours profitable to ourselves and our patients. 1st. Cultivate a spirit of observation, and re- member—there is a vast difference between the vague observation of mere curiosity, and the solid observation of true diligence. Attention constitutes this difference, and therefore, ^Escu- lapius was depicted with a serpent, because, among the antients, the serpent was the symbol of attention.* The accurate observer takes in many circumstances which escape a less careful eye. He embraces, in his inspection, all the symptoms which denote disease, and not in- sulated or detached portions of them: he is bound by no hypothesis: he has no precon- ceived theory to establish; but his observa- tions are made in a spirit of sincerity, and they are confirmed by frequent repetition:— he draws a wide difference in his mind, between attention and that subtility which sees pheno- mena that never existed, and detects the whole cause in the minutest trifles. This is the observa- tion which can alone lead to experience; and remember, gentlemen, that experience is the work of a life. Real experience is the know- ledge of truths observed by the senses, with the * Hildenbrand.