The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Wells, Spencer, 1818-1897.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells. 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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    My intentions, sir, may have been good, but their fulfilment is impossible ; and in conclusion I can only refer to the prospect which expands before us as we are shown that more than thirty destructive diseases— including tubercle and typhoid fever, ague and yellow fever, scarlatina, diphtheria, erysipelas, syphilis, and septicaemia in man; in the lower animals, splenic fever, fowl-cholera, cattle plague, glanders, hydrophobia—all depend upon specific microbes. In many of these thirty diseases, the specific microbe has been identified beyond dispute. In some, the process of attenuative culture has transformed a poisonous virus into a protective vaccine. In others, we may confidently hope that the same happy result will soon be reached; and as we have already acquired the knowledge of certain specifics, it is not illo- gical to infer that if we can in one instance command the good results we see with mercury, in another with sul- phur, and in a third with quinine, we may before long obtain such a knowledge of the various microbes which are the cause of communicable diseases, as may teach us how to destroy these organisms, or to arrest or mitigate their morbid influence, and so check, if not stamp out, some of the diseases which are now our most formidable difficulties. We may then congratulate mankind that the science of our own time has conferred not only upon man, but on the whole animal kingdom, benefits equalling any which it owes to the lucky empiricism of past ages, or to the philosophic genius and marvellous industry of John Hunter. And we his followers may be encouraged by the conviction that we so cultivate our science and our art (devoted as they are to the public good) as to j ustily us in keeping our old motto, ‘ Qu^e prosunt omnibus artes.’