Book Description

Excerpt from History of Medicine: From Its Origin to the Nineteenth Century, With an Appendix, Containing a Philosophical and Historical Review of Medicine to the Present Time In producing the work of Dr. Renouard in the English language, I have been actuated by the conviction that a treatise of its nature is greatly needed, indeed, if I except brief sketches affixed to some of our special treatises, we possess nothing in our literature that is at all calculated to satisfy the wants of the profession in this respect. The only work on this subject, of any magnitude, by an English author, is that of Dr. Freind, which is a continuation of Le Clere, and comes down only to the beginning of the sixteenth century; besides, it is out of print. Why no history of Medicine commensurate with the dignity and extent of our profession has yet been written in our tongue, I am entirely unable to explain. Other languages arc prolific enough in this respect, particularly the German and the French. To obtain any scholarly attainments on this subject, it has been necessary to read hooks in foreign languages. Knowing, therefore, the wants of the profession, and having been greatly encouraged by medical gentlemen in different portions of the Union, to whom I have communicated my design, I have ventured to offer this translation to fill this vacuum in our medical literature. I have hesitated to enter into this very difficult field of authorship, from a real distrust of my abilities for the task; and now that it is done, many errors are plainly visible. Some are minor ones, and are such as will creep into publications in spite of the utmost care. There are others, more serious, which I would gladly correct, and hope to have an opportunity of doing so at another time. Few of them, however, impair in any great degree the original, and do not, therefore, materially pervert the author's meaning. 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.