Medical Essays, 1842-1882

Synopsis

Medical Essays is a collection of short works on Medical literary works written by American Physician and Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose prose work "Breakfast-Table"  series is one of the popular works on Medical literature.

Author's Preface:

Homoeopathy has proved lucrative, and so long as it continues to be so will surely exist,—as surely as astrology, palmistry, and other methods of getting a living out of the weakness and credulity of mankind and womankind. Though it has no pretensions to be considered as belonging among the sciences, it may be looked upon by a scientific man as a curious object of study among the vagaries of the human mind. Its influence for good or the contrary may be made a matter of calm investigation.

I have studied it in the Essay before the reader, under the aspect of an extravagant and purely imaginative creation of its founder. Since that first essay was written, nearly half a century ago, we have all had a chance to witness its practical working. Two opposite inferences may be drawn from its doctrines and practice.

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