Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read this ebook for free! No credit card needed, absolutely nothing to pay.
Words: 23020 in 11 pages
This is an ebook sharing website. You can read the uploaded ebooks for free here. No credit cards needed, nothing to pay. If you want to own a digital copy of the ebook, or want to read offline with your favorite ebook-reader, then you can choose to buy and download the ebook.
USE OF THE DEAD
TO THE
LIVING.
FROM THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.
PRINTED BY WEBSTERS AND SKINNERS.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following pages contain an article extracted from the Westminster Review, an English periodical of considerable reputation. On its appearance in Great Britain, it excited great attention; and, indeed, has been there reprinted in a cheap form for general distribution. The author deserves the thanks of the community for the talents he has displayed, and the lucid and powerful manner in which he has investigated the important subject under consideration.
It is due to truth to state, that the suggestion of the republication of this article, originated with a member of the Senate of this state, and who does not belong to the profession.
USE OF THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.
FROM THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.
Every one desires to live as long as he can. Every one values health "above all gold and treasure." Every one knows that as far as his own individual good is concerned, protracted life and a frame of body sound and strong, free from the thousand pains that flesh is heir to, are unspeakably more important than all other objects, because life and health must be secured before any possible result of any possible circumstance can be of consequence to him. In the improvement of the art which has for its object the preservation of health and life, every individual is, therefore, deeply interested. An enlightened physician and a skilful surgeon, are in the daily habit of administering to their fellow men more real and unquestionable good, than is communicated, or communicable by any other class of human beings to another. Ignorant physicians and surgeons are the most deadly enemies of the community: the plague itself is not so destructive; its ravages are at distant intervals, and are accompanied with open and alarming notice of its purpose and power; theirs are constant, silent, secret; and it is while they are looked up to as saviours, with the confidence of hope, that they give speed to the progress of disease and certainty to the stroke of death.
It is deeply to be lamented that the community, in general, are so entirely ignorant of all that relates to the art and the science of medicine. An explanation of the functions of the animal economy; of their most common and important deviations from the healthy state; of the remedies best adapted to restore them to a sound condition, and of the mode in which they operate, as far as that is known, ought to form a part of every course of liberal education. The profound ignorance of the people on all these subjects, is attended with many disadvantages to themselves, and operates unfavorably on the medical character. In consequence of this want of information, persons neither know what are the attainments of the man in whose hands they place their life, nor what they ought to be; they can neither form an opinion of the course of education which it is incumbent on him to follow, nor judge of the success with which he has availed himself of the means of knowledge which have been afforded him. There is one branch of medical education in particular, the foundation, in fact, on which the whole superstructure must be raised, the necessity of which is not commonly understood, but which requires only to be stated to be perceived. Perhaps it is impossible to name any one subject which it is of more importance that the community should understand. It is one in which every man's life is deeply implicated: it is one on which every man's ignorance or information will have a considerable influence. We shall, therefore, enter into it with some detail: we shall show the kind of knowledge which it is indispensable that the physician and surgeon should possess; we shall illustrate, by a reference to particular cases, the reason why this kind of knowledge cannot be dispensed with: and we shall explain, by a statement of facts, the nature and extent of the obstacles which at present oppose the acquisition of this knowledge. We repeat, there is no subject in which every reader can be so immediately and deeply interested, and we trust that he will give us his calm and unprejudiced attention.
Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg
(0)More posts by @FreeBooks
