A brief account of facts with regard to certain researches on the heart, in reply to statements in a memoir of Dr. Hope.

  • Williams, Charles J. B. (Charles James Blasius), 1805-1889.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief account of facts with regard to certain researches on the heart, in reply to statements in a memoir of Dr. Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    A BRIEF ACCOUNT, ETC. It is not without much reluctance that I bring the following pages before the public. I am induced to do so, not by any desire to uphold my own claims to scientific discovery, still less by any wish to disparage those of one who is no more, but simply by a convic- tion that it is my duty to defend myself from unjust imputations against my probity and charity. I shall endeavour most carefully to abstain from all expression of any other feeling than that of regret, that misunder- standings should have occurred, and that their evil effects should be now renewed by what I cannot but consider the indiscreet publication of ex parte state- ments, calculated to provoke reply. I shall therefore confine myself as strictly as possible to an explanation of my own conduct, by a brief account of facts, authen- ticated by references to published works, and to the testimony of others. In the first edition of my Rational Exposition, he,., published in 1828, is the following passage :—“ The signs that are produced by the action of the heart I have found neither so certain in their indications, nor so intelligible in their causes, as those which I have hitherto described ; and I have therefore deemed it proper to postpone any attempt to include them within the plan of this work, until more extensive observation and study shall have supplied the desired intelligence.” —page 46. In 1829, my attention was further directed to the phenomena of the heart, in consequence of the obser- vations of Mr. Turner of Edinburgh, which called in question the accuracy of some of Laennec’s views. Dr. Forbes, alluding to Mr. Turner’s remarks, con- cludes:—“I recommend this subject to the especial