Andrew Lang –
Scottish man of letters
He uses statistics as a drunken man uses
lampposts—for support rather than for
illumination.
Attributed
Bernard von Langenbeck –
German surgeon
It is less important to invent new operations and
new techniques of operating than to find ways
and means to avoid surgery.
First Congress of Surgery, April ()
Lâo-tzu 6th century BC
Chinese philosopher and founder of Tâoism
Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases.
In Tâo-te Ching
Ring Lardner Jr –
US humorist
The only exercise I get is when I take the studs out
of one shirt and put them in another.
Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations
Louis Cesare Lasagna –
US pharmacologist, New York
It would seem important to devote more of the
energies of man to improving the quality of life, so
that it may be joyous, or noble, or creative.
The Doctor’s DilemmasEpilogue. Gollancz, New York ()
Peter Mere Latham –
US poet and essayist
The practice of physic is jostled by quacks on the
one side, and by science on the other.
Collected WorksVol. , ‘In Memoriam’
The knowledge of the senses is the best
knowledge; but delusions of the senses are the
worst delusions.
Diseases of the HeartLect. IV
You cannot be sure of the success of your remedy,
while you are still uncertain of the nature of the
disease.
Diseases of the HeartLect. XIV
It would be difficult to overrate the value, as
guides to practice, of the signs which declare
themselves through the medium of the lungs in
every case of unsound heart.
Diseases of the HeartLect. XXXV
Amid many possibilities of error, it would be
strange indeed to be always in the right.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affection’, Ch. IV
Common sense is in medicine the master workman.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch V
In truth, the amount of irremediable disease in
the world is enormous.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch. VI
Poisons and medicines are often times the same
substances given with different intents.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch. VII
Faith and knowledge lean largely upon each other
in the practice of medicine.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch. VII
Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing;
and so, it seems, is perfect disease.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch. X, Pt.
It is safer to appeal to men’s perceptions than to
their logic.
General Remarks on the Practice of Medicine‘The Heart and
Its Affections’, Ch. XIV
It is a truth; and it is a truth also that the whole
circle of the sciences is required to comprehend a
single particle of matter: but the most solemn
truth of all is, that the life of man is three-score
years and ten.
Lectures on Clinical MedicineLect.
Medicine is a strange mixture of speculation and
action. We have to cultivate a science and to
exercise an art.
Attributed
Treatment is concerned with the individual
patient and leaves his disease to take care of itself.
Aphorisms from Lathamp. , William B. Bean.Latin proverbs
Every animal is sad after intercourse.
If you dwell with a lame man you will learn to limp.
No remedies cause so much pain as those which
are efficacious.
Pain of mind is worse than pain of body.
There are some remedies worse than the disease.
The sins of youth are paid for in old age.
The fear of death is crueler than death itself.
Who lives medically lives miserably.
Whom fate wishes to ruin she first makes mad.Desmond Roger Laurence –
Professor of Pharmacology, University College Hospital,
London
Drug therapy involves a great deal more than
matching the name of the drug to the name of a
disease; it requires knowledge, judgement, skill and
wisdom, but above all a sense of responsibility.
Clinical Pharmacologyby D. R. Lawrence, P. N. Bennett, and
M. J. Brown. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh ()
The choice before doctors is not whether they
should experiment on their patients, but whether
they should do so in a planned or in a haphazard
fashion.
Clinical Pharmacologyp. , D. R. Lawrence, P. N. Bennett,
and M. J. Brown. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh () ·