Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1654

ELISHA BARTLETT (1804-1855) An inquiry into the degree of certainty in medicine. Lea and Blanchard 1848 vii [1] [9]-84 pp. 20.8 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1651

In this brief treatise, Bartlett's objective is to advocate the value of medical treatment. He attempts to show that while medicine is not perfect, many causes and cures of disease not yet being understood, it is indeed a science and an art. In his endeavor to illustrate the profession's knowledge of disease, he uses pneumonia as an example and expounds upon the virtues of bloodletting for favorably influencing the outcome of the disease. Surgical anesthesia was just coming into use at this time and Bartlett commented that these agents "have not yet been applied to a sufficient extent, with sufficient care, and under a sufficient variety of circumstances, positively and definitively to determine their value" (p. 74).

Cited references: Cushing B131

Gift of John Martin, M.D.