TREVES, Sir Frederick, letters, autographs, documents, manuscripts



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"Popular Medicine" = "Popular Quackery"

TREVES, Sir Frederick (1853-1923). Surgeon.
Fine long Autograph Letter Signed to the proprietor or editor of 'Science for All', 7 pages 8vo withe recipient's endorsement on the reverse, Wicksworth, Derby, 13 March 1878. Written in at the age of twenty-five, bewailing the public ignorance of medical science and offering to write a series of popularising articles on a variety of medical subjects.
'... In all popular scientific works the Science of Medicine is carefully ignored; and I believe for this first reason: that "Popular Medicine" in the majority of instances = Popular Quackery & a few very diluted scientific facts.
'The Public undoubtedly take an interest in their ailments, and I venture to think that a few papers on the rationale of certain diseases, writen
(sic) upon sound scientific bases and in a popular manner, would be of general interest and accord with the spirit and purpose of your periodical.
'Such papers - I must repeat - would deal
solely with the scientific aspect of disease, with the physics and chemistry of Medicine, leaving "symptoms" and "treatment" and such other points to the seclusion of "Culpepper's Herbalist" ...'
Treves, who was to gain his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in this year, would have been quite unknown to his correspondent. The hastily scrawled endorsement, by way of instructions to an assistant to reply to this letter, imply that he was brushed off fairly quickly. The letter continues with a precis of a number of possible articles: 'The Stethoscope and what is heard through it', 'Consumption', 'Fever', and 'The Pulse'.
It was not until 1884 that Treves was to meet Joseph Merrick, 'The Elephant Man'.
[No: 20260]


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