Two Centuries Of American Medicine 1776 1976 PDF Download

Excerpt from A Century of American Medicine, 1776-1876 When Boerhaave, the most accomplished and celebrated physician of the 18th century, died, he left behind him an elegant volume, the title-page of which declared that it contained all the secrets of medicine. On opening the volume every page, except one, was blank. On that one was written, "keep the head cool, the feet warm, and the bowels open." This legacy of Boerhaave to suffering humanity typified, not inaptly or unjustly, the acquirements, not of medical science, but of medical art at the close of the 18th century. Empiricism, authority, and theory ruled the medical practice of the world at that time. The result of therapeutical experience from Hippocrates to Boerhaave was fairly summed up by the latter in the eleven words we have just quoted. To quiet the nervous system, to equalize the circulation, to provide for the normal action of the intestinal canal, and to leave all the rest to the vis medicatrix nattir was sound medical treatment, and it was as far as a sound therapeutics had gone a hundred years ago. This goal had been reached by empiricism. Wise practitioners like Boerhaave, Sydenham, Morgagni, and a few others, were content to restrain their materia medica within these modest limits. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."