First lines of the practice of physic / by William Cullen, M.D. ... ; with supplementary notes, including the more recent improvements in the practice of medicine / by Peter Reid.

  • Cullen, William, 1710-1790.
Date:
May - 1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First lines of the practice of physic / by William Cullen, M.D. ... ; with supplementary notes, including the more recent improvements in the practice of medicine / by Peter Reid. 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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    7, Dr. Gaubius, above referred to, as well ks many other treatifes of late au- thors, point out fufncieiitly the defefts and imperfedtions of Boerhaavc on this fuhiedt. . , i • i. After Dr. Bocrhaave' has confidered tlve dilcafes of the fohds, he, jn the next place, attempts to explain the more fimple difeafes of the fluids; and there, indeed, he delivers a more corredt dodtrinc of acid and alkali than had been given before : but, after all, he has done it \cry iniperfc,(5tly. We have indeed, finceh.s time, acquired more knowledge upon the fubjetfl of digeltion; and fo much as to know that a great deal more is yet ncceirary* to enable us to underflrand iu what manner the animal fluids are formed from the aliments taken in. And although Dr. Boerhaave has fallen inlO could notpoffiblybe complete upon that fubjed ; and his notiop of the ef- fects of acidity in < he mafs of blood feems to have been entirely miftaken, and is indeed not confiftent with what he himfelf has delivered elfewhere. His dodtrine of alkali is fomewhat better founded, but is probably carried too far ; and the ftate of alkalefcency and pufrefadion, as well as all the other changes which can take place in the condition of animal fluids, are par- ticulars yet involved in great obfcurity, and are therefore Itill fubjedts of dii- pute. There is another particular, in which Boerhaave's do(5l:rine concerning th e fluids, appears to meimperfedt and unfatisfad:ory,and that is, in his dodtrine ae Glutimfofpontaneo. The caufes which he has aillgned for it are by no means probable, andtheadtual exiftence of itisfeldom to be proved. Some of the proofs adduced for the exiftence of the */;.V^wa calidum, ai-e manifeil- ly founded on a miftakt with refpedt to what has been called the inflamato- ry cruft, (fee Van Swieten's Commentary, page 96 ; and the many examples given by Bqprhaave of ighttinofum appearing in the human body, (Aph. jS-J are all of them no!,hing more than inftancesofcolledlions or concretions found, out of the ccurfe of the circulation. If then we coufid^r the inperfedtion of Dr. Boerhaave's dodtrine with ref- pedt to the ftate and various condition of the animal fluids ; and if at the ame time we refledl howfrecjuently he and his followers have employed the uppofuion of an acrimony, or lentur of the fluids, as caufes of difeafe, and furdiredtingthc pradlice ; v/e muft, as I apprehend, be fatisfied, that his fyftem is not only deficient and incomplete, but fallacious and apt to mif- Icad. Although it cannot be denied that the fiuids of the human body fuffcr various morbid change?, and that upon thefe, difeafes may primarily depend ; yet 1 muft beg leave to maintain, that the nature of thefe changes is fcldom undeiftood, and more feldom ftill is it knov^n when they have taken place . that our reafonings concerning them have been, for the moft part, purely hypothetical; have therefore contributed nothing to improve, and have of- tea milled the practice of phyfic. In this, particularly they have been hurt- ful, that they have withdrawn our ^ittcntion from, and prevented our ftudy of the motions of the animal fyftem, upon the ftate of which the phenomena of difeafes do morc certainly and generally depeiid. Whoever then fhall cor-- lldcr the almoft total ncglcdt of the ftate of the moving powers of the animal body, and the prevalence of an hypothetical humoral -pathology, fo con- ■ picuous m every part of the Boerhaavian Syftem, muft be convinced of its k-ery great defedts, and perceive the necefTity of attempting one more cor- redt. After giving this general view, it is not requifite to enter into particula-- • hut, I believe, there are very few pages of his aphorifms in which th4e Joes not occur fome error or defedl; although, per^iaps, not to be imput- ed to the fault of Boerijaave, fo mnch as to this, that fince his time a great collcifiori of new fadts has been acquired by obfervation and experirnent This mdeed alTorda the beft and moft ft.lid rcafon for attempting a nevJ fyftem : for when many new fadts have been acquired, it becomes requilite tiat thefe Ihouldbe mcorporated into a fyftem, whereby iiot only particu lai;