Outline of a Natural System of Medical Science

Part 1

OUTLINE OF A NATURAL SYSTEM OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

OUTLINE OF A NATURAL SYSTEM OF MEDICAL SCIENCE.

FORMING THE PRELIMINARY LECTURES TO TWO COURSES: ONE ON ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY; THE OTHER ON PATHOLOGY AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

BY ALEXANDER WALKER, ESQ. LECTURER ON PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. EDITOR OF THE ARCHIVES OF UNIVERSAL SCIENCE, &c. &c.

By pronouncing diseases incurable, physicians have attempted to enact a law of neglect, and to exempt ignorance from discredit.

LORD BACON.

EDINBURGH: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. FOR SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, NO. 6, BRIDGE-STREET, BLACKFRIARS, LONDON, AND MESSRS T. BRYCE AND CO. INFIRMARY-STREET, EDINBURGH. 1808.

ALEXANDER MONRO, ESQ. SENIOR,

M. D. Professor of Medicine, Anatomy and Surgery, in the University of Edinburgh, &c.

This Outline of a Natural System of Medical Science is most respectfully dedicated by one who is grateful for the benefits he has conferred upon Anatomy and Physiology, and who is desirous of following his footsteps in the cultivation of these Sciences.

ALEXANDER WALKER.

2, North College Street, 27th October 1808.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In this small Work, the Author has delivered a very brief Outline of a Natural Systematic Arrangement and Theory of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and of the Materia Medica, as strictly dependent on each other.

Of this system the tendency is, not to controvert one established fact of Medical Science, but by pointing out their relations, to simplify, to consolidate and if possible to increase the amount of our knowledge in all the departments of Medicine.

As a work of this kind is a fair object of criticism; to the philosophic and liberal reviewer I have only to say, that I shall most willingly submit to his decision. Error is almost inseparable from propositions of any extent or magnitude, and I have doubtless committed many. But to the reviewers for the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, and those of a London Review under their influence, as they constitute a party somewhat in opposition to my views, I have to observe, that, should they act unjustly, as I know them not individually, I must hold their editor, whom I do know, responsible for their conduct, and I consequently shall do so.

PRELIMINARY LECTURE TO THE COURSE OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY; EXHIBITING THE OUTLINE OF A NATURAL SYSTEM OF THESE SCIENCES.

GENTLEMEN,

The functions of man are the most interesting objects of Science. Physics and Morals are equally involved by them. It is in them that the physical sciences terminate, and that the moral sciences have their origin.

Of what avail are the former, but to develope the influence of external bodies upon the functions of man? What are the latter, but the results of the reaction of that influence upon men in society?

To explain them is the business of physiology; and if it have hitherto failed in doing so—if it have even neglected the noblest of all the functions—I should say the noblest branch of philosophy—the intellectual functions of man, and have abandoned them to persons totally incapable of developing them, because totally ignorant of the structure on which they depend, and who have left them in a state of greater obscurity than that in which they found them, that is the fault of physiologists, and not of their science.

In these lectures, I shall at least be influenced by the deepest sense of such errors.

But it is not merely the philosophy of the human mind, or rather of the intellectual functions of man, that have thus been abandoned to barbarism. The science itself has never been systematized; and all its individual parts have been so neglected, that the other sciences and the arts dependent upon it, have been left in similar obscurity.

I shall endeavour to shew that it is by the aid of physiology alone that, in explaining the functions of the eye, for instance, we can render perfect the theories of colour and of vision; that, in explaining the functions of the ear, we can construct rational ones of phonics and of hearing; that in explaining the functions of the organ of voice, we can illustrate the formation of letters, and the origin of languages; that, in explaining the functions of the muscles, we can establish those first principles of taste in the fine arts, the very existence of which have so often been questioned, and so deliver a theory of movement and of attitude, applicable to sculpture, the higher species of painting, gesture in oratory, &c. In fine, it is by physiological means only, that we can construct a natural theory of medicine, and render precise and easy, the most delicate and the most difficult of the operations of surgery.

To effect these purposes, nothing is more necessary than arrangement, because it at once involves facts and their theory, or the reasonings founded upon them.

* * * * *

In considering a natural arrangement of Anatomy and Physiology, it appears to me an unquestionable point, that it ought to indicate, at a single glance, the relation of all the functions to and their dependence upon each other.

It is upon this principle that I have constructed the natural arrangement which I am about to detail; and a single remark upon the arrangements adopted by the most celebrated modern physiologists, will, at once, shew the originality of the plan which I propose, and point out the errors of arrangement which I deprecate.

Part 2

Blumenbach, Chausier, Dumas and Bichat, treat of circulation before absorption, on which it depends, and even before mastication, deglutition and digestion, on which, in general, even absorption itself chiefly depends.

If the arrangement of Chausier in particular, who, in this respect, is as accurate as any of them, were to be considered as indicating the relation and dependence of the functions, so absurd is it, that absorption instead of the cause, would be the result of nutrition, generation the result of absorption, and digestion the result of generation. Thus, by arranging effects in the place of causes, they confound the relations of the functions, and reverse the very order of their dependence.

The division of the functions into external and internal, as anciently proposed by Aristotle, and afterwards successively adopted and improved by Buffon, Grimaud and Bichat (the last of whom substituted for them the terms organic and animal) is still more faulty.

Anatomy, I divide into three parts, namely that which considers the mechanical or loco-motive organs, that which considers the vital organs, and that which considers the intellectual organs.

Under the mechanical or loco-motive organs, I class, first, the bones which support the rest of the animal structure; second, the ligaments which unite them; and third, the muscles which move them.

Under the vital organs, I class, first, the organs of digestion, the absorbent surfaces, and the vessels which absorb from these surfaces; second, the heart, lungs and blood-vessels, which derive their contents (the blood) from the absorbed lymph; and third, the organs of secretion, which separate various matters from the blood. Then follow the generative organs, which, though generally formed into a distinct class from the vital, ought not by any means to be so reckoned. For it is evident, that they form, as it were, the sequel of the vital organs, being dependent on secretion—the last of the vital functions, and destined merely to propagate vitality, and to communicate it to a new series of beings.

Under the intellectual organs, I class, first, the organs of sense, where impressions take place; second, the brain or organ of judgment, where these excite ideas; and third, the nerves, where volition results from the last.

This is a natural arrangement of the anatomy of animals, and its peculiar simplicity is illustrated by its involving, in application, that of minerals and vegetables, and by its being capable of instant adaption to physiological science.

In order to arrange Animal Physiology, it is only necessary to substitute the term “functions” for “organs;” and that science will likewise involve, in application, the physiology of mineral and vegetable bodies, and be, in its turn, capable of instant adaption to medical science.

Thus, the functions also are divided into Mechanical, Vital and Intellectual.

The mechanical functions are subdivided into that of support, that of connection, and that of loco-motion.

The vital functions are divided into that of absorption, that of circulation, and that of secretion.

The intellectual functions are divided into that of sensation, that of mental operation, and that of volition.

A circle of functions, I may observe, thus exists in animals, which exists not in minerals or vegetables, because volition, the last of the intellectual functions, connects itself to the mechanical ones, by rendering them subservient to it in loco-motion. Thus the first and the last of these functions are as intimately connected as any of the intermediate ones, and a beautiful circle of organic function and organic influence is formed.

The plan of the course will, therefore, be precisely the same with that which I have proposed for Anatomy and Physiology in general.

I. In that part of the course which relates to the mechanical organs and functions, will be explained the structure and uses, 1st, of the bones which support the rest of the animal machine; 2dly, of the ligaments which unite it; and 3dly, of the muscles which move it.

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