Complete Overview of the History of Medicine in Tabular Form

These tables will be followed by a more detailed historical-critical presentation of all systems and theories in medicine, and following that, the history and criticism of all therapeutic methods recommended in general as well as special therapy. The purpose of these will be to determine to what extent all therapeutic methods and remedies, both those used in the past and especially those still in use today, have been recommended merely for hypothetical reasons and an assumed principle or from true knowledge of nature and with reason. For here, history unfortunately confirms what a philosophical critique of medicine teaches: that only a few principles established in theoretical and practical medicine were based on genuine experience or complete knowledge of the animal economy; the greater part of them, on the other hand, rested upon hypotheses and unproven assumptions; that all systems and theories can provide occasion for useful experiences and principles if they are not based too much on hypothetical reasons or applied too hastily; and that it must therefore be a highly important and necessary requirement for every physician to know all systems, but to follow none of them exclusively, rather to wisely use and apply the truth that each of them contains, once tested on the touchstone of observation. This is undeniably the greatest advantage that the study of the history of medicine can provide, and the author would consider himself happy if he could one day contribute something toward making this important conviction more general.