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* Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of Organic and Animal Life , * a work which contains new view * on several points of considerable importance . In the present work the author endeavours to point out the practical bearing of some of those views , and to show in general the importance of making physiology the basis of medicine . Physiology is the science which investigates the actions natural to the various organs of the body ; disease consists in some deviation from those natural
actions ; to appreciate the deviation it is necessary to understand the regular course ; and this is equally indispensable , in order , with any degree of certainty , to discover and apply a remedy capable of changing the deranged to a sound state . What anatomy is to the surgeon , physiology should therefore be to the physician ; but the art of anatomy is easily brought to a high degree of perfection , and is not difficult to be acquired ; , whereas , of all the subjects of investigation to which the
human mind can apply itself , physiological research is among the most difficult , on account of the obscurity and complexity of the conditions and relations of life , which constitute the subject-matter of it . Yet before any physiological principle can be a safe guide in the practice of medicine , it must not only be in itself certain and clear , but it must be known in all its relations . Now there are not many such physiological principles established ; and there are few physicians who are familiar
even with those that may be considered as ascertained . The application of physiology to medicine must therefore at present necessarily be partial and imperfect ; but tliis is no reason why the application should not be made as far as it can be done , and it is an indication that medicine is advancing from an art into a science , that the cultivators of it are at length beginning to be sensible of the right mode in which it should be studied and practised ; and are anxious to turn to a useful
account , at the bedside of the sick , whatever they may have learnt relative to the laws of the animal economy . Without entering into disquisitions scarcely in place in this publication , and at all events without a greater space than can be here allotted to them , it would be impossible to examine the merits of Dr . Holland ' s work . It is , however , well deserving the attention not only of the physiologist but of the physician ; not only of the student but of the practitioner . Some of the principles stated in it are , to a considerable
extent , new and sound ; are expressed with clearness and reasoned with acuteness , and to many medical men the applications suggested must appear no less novel than they really are important . The defects of the work are , that it is diffuse ; that it abounds with repetitions ; that its matter is not well arranged and digested , and that instead of once for all stating and developing a principle , and showing its relations , it is partrally reasoned in one place , adverted to in a second , while promises are perpetually given that it will be more completely elucidated in a third . We think the author would greatly increase the usefulness of tlie
remaining portion of his work , if he will take pains to condense , to classify , and to render as connected and complete as possible the statement and illustration of whatever principle he attempt * to elucidate .
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748 Critical Notices .
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CowutapoXDiNTi .. —To C . P . One of the names mentioned will m > t be ia the book . Should this makt any difiewoc * will C , P . g * v fo . Where can P . V . B .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 748, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/74/
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