An essay on the nature and treatment of that state of disorder generally called dropsy / by John G. Whilldin, M.D.

  • Whilldin, John Galloway, 1791-1824.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the nature and treatment of that state of disorder generally called dropsy / by John G. Whilldin, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ed (with the threat that if I refused I should forfeit my degree) to remove the following por- tion of my thesis. Though there are unquestionably great dif- ficulties essentially connected with the state of disease of which we are treating, I doubt not, indeed I feel confident that the want of success in attempts at its removal, is, in very many in- stances, attributable to the absurd practice of addressing our remedies to one particular symp- tom, without the slightest reference to the im- mense variety of circumstances under which it may occur. This the legitimate offspring of Nosology, is an evil greatly to be deplored, not only for the mischief it has done in the practice of regular physicians, but for the dreadful ra- vages it will yet commit, in the broad founda- tion it has laid of the grossest empiricism. Among the many evidences of its absurdity, Dr. Sydenham has recorded one instance in his Treatise of the Dropsy. Having succeeded in effecting a cure in one instance (the first which he had to treat) by a particular plan of treat- ment, he says he thought he had become master of an infallible remedy, and boldly and confi- dently administered it in the next case that came under his care, but having persevered in its use for some time his patient gradually grew worse, became dissatisfied and dismissed him. He for-