“The air of caricature never fails to show itself in the products of reason applied relentlessly and without correction. The observation of clinical facts would seem to be a pursuit of the physician as harmless as it is indispensable. [But] it seemed irresistibly rational to certain minds that diseases should be as fully classifiable as are beetles and butterflies. This doctrine ... bore perhaps its richest fruit in the hands of Boissier de Sauvauges. In his Nosologia Methodica published in 1768 ... this Linnaeus of the bedside grouped diseases into ten classes, 295 genera, and 2400 species.” ShouldMindReasonFactsShowsHandsSeemsCertainClassFailingAirProductsTenDiseaseSpeciesFruitPursuitDoctrineRationalObservationButterflyBoresPhysiciansIndispensableCorrectionsCaricaturesClassificationClinicalsBeetlesLinnaeus Author:Wilfred Trotter
“The ordinary patient goes to his doctor because he is in pain or some other discomfort and wants to be comfortable again; he is not in pursuit of the ideal of health in any direct sense. The doctor on the other hand wants to discover the pathological condition and control it if he can. The two are thus to some degree at cross purposes from the first, and unless the affair is brought to an early and happy conclusion this diversion of aims is likely to become more and more serious as the case goes on.” IfsWantFirstsTwoHandsPainSciencePurposeCasesConditionsSeriousHealthGoes OnDegreesComfortableOrdinaryIdealsCrossesDirectDoctorsAimPatientAffairPursuitConclusionDiscomfortDiversion Author:Wilfred Trotter
“The various systems of doctrine that have held dominion over man have been demonstrated to be true beyond all question by rationalists of such power-to name only a few-as Aquinas and Calvin and Hegel and Marx. Guided by these master hands the intellect has shown itself more deadly than cholera or bubonic plague and far more cruel. The incompatibility with one another of all the great systems of doctrine might surely be have expected to provoke some curiosity about their nature.” MenHas BeensHandsMightScienceNamesMastersCuriosityVariousIntellectExpectedDoctrineBeing TrueProvokingPlagueDominionHegelCholeraIncompatibilityBubonic Plague Author:Wilfred Trotter
