Medical notes and reflections / By Sir Henry Holland, bart. ... From the 3d London ed.

  • Holland, Henry, Sir, 1788-1873.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical notes and reflections / By Sir Henry Holland, bart. ... From the 3d London ed. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    In tlie preface to this volume I have briefly stated the motives which originally led me to this manner of publication, and the principles by which I have guided myself in it. But as prefaces are often not read, or scantily remembered, I am desirous to add a few concluding pages, which may form a sort of summary to the foregoing chapters, both as respects their general design and the method of its fulfilment. Such revision, while sought for partly on my own behalf, will not, I trust, be wholly indifferent or useless to the reader. An object which I have sedulously kept in view in the selec- tion, as well as treatment, of the topics included in this volume, has been their relation to those more general principles of theory and practice, which alone can give sanction to the name of Medical Philosophy. Even in the few instances where treating of particular diseases or remedies, I have sought, as far as possible, to bring them into connection with these general views; believing that in this manner I might render more useful the notes and reflections, derived from a long practice, which I have ventured to make the foundation of my work. The reader will, I think, see that this object has been always before me; and that it has led in several cases to the association of certain diseases, or morbid states, not usually classed together in our systems of nosology. The relations, thus indicated, must ever be important; even if in part superseded hereafter by the discovery of others, still closer and more determinate. In a field wide as that of Medical Science, there are many paths, seemingly parallel in the outset, but ultimately converging towards those higher truths and more general laws, which, here as elsewhere, must be regarded as the just object and end of all research. I trust it will be further seen, that I have constantly endea- vored to separate what is actual and assured knowledge from that