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existing race of architects , what would be the best form of arch for the construction * of Blackfriars Bridge ; and a bishop , not less celebrated , in a previous generation , undertook to teach physicians the medicinal virtues of tar water : —thus illustrating an observation of a modern writer , that there is a sense in which the follies of genius are found on an exact level with the conceits of the shallowest minds .
It is , however , a question which much concerns lis all , how far and to what extent we are to follow blindly the oracular opinions of professional men . Indeed , there are times and occasions in which these are challenged by divisions even within the camp . Then comes the question—Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? The present times are in this respect truly portentous . Look where we will , we
can scarcely find a professional dictum which appears to be finally settled and determined . Law , physic , and divinity are all in a state of siege . Lord Brougham has nearly capsized the Juggernaut Car under which generations of men , women , and children have been legally crushed ; and every act of Parliament has rendered the machine of the man of law more and more top-heavy . Physic has been attacked in her strongholds . Mot only have , professors , once of good
repute , turned arrant quacks , and vilified the very alma mater which brought them forth and nourished them ; but the profession itself is re-examining , with tender misgivings , the foundations of its faith , and the principles of its practice . Divinity is assaying the same perilous enterprise . The Church itself is distracted and divided , and its enemies are rejoicing in fiendish glee . Truth and right are on their trial , and all parties are crying out with the Prophet , — " Truth faileth , so that justice cannot enter . '
But what is this but just one of those stages of excitement in the body social , which , like certain electro-magnetic conditions of the earth ' s surface , occur once , twice , or thrice , in every century or lustrum ?—there is nothing new or remarkable about it . On the one hand , the upstarts who are making all this fuss are but reiterating the objections which have been fully answered a score of times , and
in different generations ; and on the other hand if there be any real changes for the better in progress amongst us , those changes , so far as they are professional , are but the taking into favour that which has before found favour and been discarded . In medicine , for instance , the " humoral theory" of disease , which attributes deranged health to impurities in the blood , and which triumphed without oppohealth to impurities in the bloodand which triumphed without
oppo-, sition a century and a half since , and was afterwards rejected in favour of the modern theory of disease as originating rather in the blood-vessels than in the blood , —this " humoral theory" is again in the ascendant , and there , by the aid of the microscope , it is likely to remain ; for what was conjectured formerly can now be demonstrated .
This , however , is rather a scientific than a professional change . We can scarcely say as much for the modern condition of the fine arts , much less for modern divinity and law . Music is perhaps advancing . ; at least , so it appears to us as a nation ; but thp present movement is as nothing when compared with the royal speed of the musical age of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
existing race of architects , what would be the best form of arch for the construction * of Blackfriars Bridge ; and a bishop , not less celebrated , in a previous generation , undertook to teach physicians the medicinal virtues of tar water : —thus illustrating an observation of a modern writer , that there is a sense in which the follies of genius are found on an exact level with the conceits of the shallowest minds .
It is , however , a question which much concerns lis all , how far and to what extent we are to follow blindly the oracular opinions of professional men . Indeed , there are times and occasions in which these are challenged by divisions even within the camp . Then comes the question—Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? The present times are in this respect truly portentous . Look where we will , we
can scarcely find a professional dictum which appears to be finally settled and determined . Law , physic , and divinity are all in a state of siege . Lord Brougham has nearly capsized the Juggernaut Car under which generations of men , women , and children have been legally crushed ; and every act of Parliament has rendered the machine of the man of law more and more top-heavy . Physic has been attacked in her strongholds . Mot only have , professors , once of good
repute , turned arrant quacks , and vilified the very alma mater which brought them forth and nourished them ; but the profession itself is re-examining , with tender misgivings , the foundations of its faith , and the principles of its practice . Divinity is assaying the same perilous enterprise . The Church itself is distracted and divided , and its enemies are rejoicing in fiendish glee . Truth and right are on their trial , and all parties are crying out with the Prophet , — " Truth faileth , so that justice cannot enter . '
But what is this but just one of those stages of excitement in the body social , which , like certain electro-magnetic conditions of the earth ' s surface , occur once , twice , or thrice , in every century or lustrum ?—there is nothing new or remarkable about it . On the one hand , the upstarts who are making all this fuss are but reiterating the objections which have been fully answered a score of times , and
in different generations ; and on the other hand if there be any real changes for the better in progress amongst us , those changes , so far as they are professional , are but the taking into favour that which has before found favour and been discarded . In medicine , for instance , the " humoral theory" of disease , which attributes deranged health to impurities in the blood , and which triumphed without oppohealth to impurities in the bloodand which triumphed without
oppo-, sition a century and a half since , and was afterwards rejected in favour of the modern theory of disease as originating rather in the blood-vessels than in the blood , —this " humoral theory" is again in the ascendant , and there , by the aid of the microscope , it is likely to remain ; for what was conjectured formerly can now be demonstrated .
This , however , is rather a scientific than a professional change . We can scarcely say as much for the modern condition of the fine arts , much less for modern divinity and law . Music is perhaps advancing . ; at least , so it appears to us as a nation ; but thp present movement is as nothing when compared with the royal speed of the musical age of