An Epitome of the History of MedicinePark, Roswell
History
An Epitome of the History of Medicine
Park, Roswell
Medicine -- History
The ablest representative of this school, and one who, perhaps, more
than any other man, made Paris a Mecca to which foreigners made their
pilgrimages, was Andral (1797-1876),--the son of a physician and the
most noted and indefatigable investigator and thinker of his time.
Between 1823 and 1840 were published the five volumes of his _Medical
Clinic_, which made him famous. He taught, in opposition to Broussais,
the existence of primary diseases{246} of the blood, the so-called
dyscrasiæ; made physiology subservient to pathology; was the creator of
the chemistry of the blood; and in therapeutics was wedded to emetics
and cathartics, ascribing little importance to abstraction of blood.
The first man to apply the Numerical Method to pathology, and who
brought about the downfall of Broussais, was Louis (1787-1872), who
had studied in Russia, but came to Paris while still a young man. He
expressed his principle in the following words: "As often as I have
formed an _a priori_ idea and had afterward opportunity to prove the
facts, I have invariably found that my idea was false. In pathology
as well as in therapeutics numerical analysis is a useful practice. By
numbers only can be obtained the frequency of conditions or this or that
symptom; by a definite enumeration alone is it possible to utilize the
special relations of age, sex, constitution of our patients, to settle
that this or that symptom occurs so often in one hundred or one thousand
cases." This system he applied to etiology, symptomatology, prognosis,
therapeutics, and pathological anatomy. He discarded blisters and
condemned large bleedings, but fell into other errors, carrying his
numerical method to an unjustifiable extreme.
Next to Andral and Louis should be mentioned Magendie (1783-1855),
Professor of General Pathology in the College de France, and physician
to the Hôtel-Dieu, who was a representative of the new French medicine,
and introduced experiments into both pathology and physiology; he was
the pioneer in experimental pharmacodynamics, which occupies itself
largely with alkalies, a large number of which he introduced into
practice. He was a solid humoralist in pathology, a most accurate
diagnostician, but (it is charged) "was too simple in therapeutics"! As
a result of his intravenous injections of putrefactive material, he had
the terms "pyæmia," "icliorrhæmia," and "metastasis" introduced into
pathology.
Trousseau{247} (1801-1866), of Tours, also became professor in the Paris
Faculty, and rendered especial service in his studies of croup and the
employment therefor of tracheotomy, though his chief fame rests upon
his merit as a clinical teacher and the publication of clinical lectures
which are still models in every way of accurate, forcible teaching.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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