Vindication of the pre-eminent efficacy of manual operations in the cure of rheumatic and nervous diseases. Against the malignant and unprincipled attempts of certain members of the medical profession to decry and obstruct the practice / [William Balfour].

  • Balfour, William, 1780-
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vindication of the pre-eminent efficacy of manual operations in the cure of rheumatic and nervous diseases. Against the malignant and unprincipled attempts of certain members of the medical profession to decry and obstruct the practice / [William Balfour]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Nevertheless, like every other important improvement that ever was made in the Healing Art, mine has been maligned, impugned, and obstructed, in every possible way ; chiefly, if not solely, by individuals of the medical profes¬ sion, whose conduct is evidence incontrovertible, that they are as heartless as handless—^so utterly destitute, indeed, of every principle of feeling and of honour, that they are totally indifferent whether their patients sink or swim— whether they are ever cured or not, provided they cannot cure them. This opposition has not been manifested in fair, open, and manly discussion, for then it would have been in my power to do myself justice; but in that pitiful, underhand, insidious, backbiting way, which equally characterizes the coward and the calumniator. I feel myself imperatively called upon, therefore, to stand forward in my own vindi¬ cation. I conceive myself laid under a necessity to expose the machinations, and neutralize the venom, of such miser¬ able opponents, by shoxmng them up^ in their true and proper colours. In the first place. Some time ago, I made a perfect cure of lameness in a lady, of twenty-four years duration, eighteen of which she was on crutches. Conceiving it would be for the benefit of many a distressed person to make the case generally known, I had it printed, and advertised it to be had gratis at my house, and at two separate book¬ sellers’ shops. One of these booksellers distributed all the copies I sent him ; the other gave out very few. When I asked the reason, he said, that “ several medical men in the city (naming some of them) had called on him and stated, that if he gave out a single copy of my pamphlet, they would withdraw their custom and patronage from him !” Now, in conduct so nefarious, illegal, and unjust, whether did malignity or meanness predominate? They stand, I think, in this relation to each other—the malice of the ignoble individuals in question was of such virulence, as to make them lose sight of all self-respect, in their endeavours