MEDICINE.
INTRODUCTION.
WE propose to abandon the plan hitherto followed in previous editions when treating of MEDICINE, and to consider it rather as a branch of politics and of political economy, of singular interest to the citizen and statesman, than as a mere matter of science and art. It has a large encyclopedic literature of its own, to which our restricted space would not allow us to do justice in any degree. We propose, therefore, to give a general summary of the development and present condition of medicine and of the medical profession, with a more especial reference to their social and political relations. To this end we have traced their advancement and progress from the earliest period concurrently with fundamental changes in creeds and governments, so as to show under what conditions of society they rose and fell, and what their future development may be. The review is necessarily very general.
The term Medicine. The word "MEDICINE," in its narrowest sense, signifies anything taken or applied by a person suffering from disease, with a view to relief or cure. Thus used, it expresses the means available in the art of healing. In a wider and philosophical sense it signifies all the knowledge applicable to the exercise of the art. This knowledge constitutes the science of medicine. Medicine is a term, therefore, which has a very varied and comprehensive signification, and includes every branch of medical science and every division of medical art. Practical psychology, surgery, midwifery, and
pharmacy, and medical chemistry, botany, and zoology, are consequently departments of practical medicine.
Medicine, in this comprehensive sense, is synonymous with the THEORY and PRACTICE of PHYSIC. By the 32d clausule sur Henry VIII., cap. 40, § iii., the members of the London College of Physicians had expressly reserved to them the right to practise surgery. It runs as follows:—"And forasmuch as the science of physick doth comprehend and contain the knowledge of surgery as a special member of the same; therefore be it enacted, that any of the said company of physicians, &c., may, from time to time, as well within this city of London as elsewhere within this realm, practise and exercise the said science of physick in all and every her members and parts," &c.
When we examine in detail what is the knowledge that is necessary to this end, we find that it is, in fact, nothing less than a knowledge of the nature of man, and of its relations to all nature around him. Hence physics, the old Medicine term for the science of nature, was formerly synonymous with medical science, and the physician was but another of human nature. This grand old name name for the medical practitioner. This grand old name name for the students of the science of human nature is so comprehensive, and so clearly indicates the duties and privileges of him who has to apply that science to the welfare of man, that it is to be hoped it will not be permitted to pass out of use, but, on the contrary, the physician shall henceforth be, as his name implies, able and fit for the practice of medicine "in all and every her members and parts."