THE GROWTH OF MEDICINEFROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO ABOUT 1800
Published on the Foundation
Established in Memory of
WILLIAM CHAUNCEY WILLIAMS
of the Class of 1822, Yale Medical School
AND OF
WILLIAM COOK WILLIAMS
of the Class of 1850, Yale Medical School
THE GROWTH OF MEDICINE
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
TO ABOUT 1800
By
ALBERT H. BUCK, B.A., M.D.
Formerly Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Ear, Columbia
University, New York—Consulting Aural Surgeon,
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; etc.
NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXVII
Copyright, 1917
By Yale University Press
First published, February, 1917
THE WILLIAMS MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND
The present volume is the first work published by the Yale UniversityPress on the Williams Memorial Publication Fund. This Foundationwas established June 15, 1916, by a gift made to Yale University byDr. George C. F. Williams, of Hartford, a member of the Class of1878, Yale School of Medicine, where three generations of his familystudied—his father, William Cook Williams, in the Class of 1850, andhis grandfather, William Chauncey Williams, in the Class of 1822.
[ix]
PREFACE
Very few persons will challenge the truth of the statement that in theUnited States and Canada there are not many physicians who possesseven a slight knowledge concerning the manner in which the scienceof medicine has attained its present power as an agency for good, orconcerning the men who played the chief parts in bringing about thisgreat result. Up to the present time no blame may justly be attached toany individuals or to any educational institutions for this prevailinglack of knowledge, and for two very good reasons, viz.: first,in a newly settled country, in which the population grows by leaps andbounds through the influx of foreign immigrants, the training of youngmen for the degree of M.D. must necessarily be almost entirely of apractical character, and consequently the teaching of such a subjectas the history of medicine would be quite out of place; and, second,the treatises on this subject which are purchasable by English-speakingphysicians are of rather too scientific a character to appeal eitherto the undergraduate or to the busy practitioner. The first of thereasons named, it may now safely be assumed, is rapidly losing itsvalidity, if indeed it has not already ceased entirely to afford alegitimate excuse for neglecting the study of this branch of medicalscience. On the other hand, the second reason mentioned is still inforce,—so far at least as the present writer knows,—and, if such bethe case, it certainly cannot fail to act as a deterrent influence ofgreat potency. Here, then, is my apology for attempting to prepare anaccount of the history of medicine which shall present the essentialfacts truthfully and with a sufficient degree of attractiveness tow