A man may be said to be in a state of health when
he is not conscious of any uneasy sensations, the
primary seat of which can be perceived to be
anywhere in his body.
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and LegislationCh.
Pain is in itself an evil; and, indeed, without
exception, the only evil.
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and LegislationCh. X
Bernard Berenson –
US art critic
Psychoanalysts are not occupied with the minds of
their patients; they do not believe in the mind but
in a cerebral intestine.
Quoted by Umberto Morra in Conversations with Berenson
February ()
Frank M. Berger –
US pharmacologist
Tranquilizers at times do much more than eliminate
agitation; they may facilitate social adjustment,
eliminate delusions and hallucinations, or make
mute patients communicative.
Drugs and BehaviorCh. , Leonard Uhr and James
G. Miller (ed.)
Claude Bernard –
French physiologist and founder of experimental medicine
Put off your imagination as you take off your
overcoat, when you enter the laboratory.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine ()
True science teaches us to doubt and, in
ignorance, refrain.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. ii
A scientific hypothesis is merely a scientific idea,
preconceived or previsioned. A theory is merely a
scientific idea controlled by experiment.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. vi
In biological sciences, the role of method is even
more important than in other sciences, because of
the immense complexity of the phenomena and
the countless sources of error which complexity
brings into experimentation.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. ii
If an idea presents itself to us, we must not reject
it simply because it does not agree with the logical
deductions of a reigning theory.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. iii
A discovery is generally an unforeseen relation not
included in theory, for otherwise it would be
foreseen.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine ()
Men who have excessive faith in their theories or
ideas are not only ill prepared for making
discoveries; they also make very poor
observations.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. iii
It is in the darker regions of science that great
men are recognised; they are marked by ideas
which light up phenomena hitherto obscure and
carry science forward.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. iv
Experiment is fundamentally only induced
observation.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Sect. v
The doubter is a true man of science; he doubts
only himself and his interpretations, but he
believes in science.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt I, Ch. , Sect. vi
True science teaches us to doubt and, in
ignorance, to refrain.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine()
Pt , Ch. , Sect. vii
Systems do not exist in Nature but only in men’s
minds.
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine ()
In experimentation it is always necessary to start
from a particular fact and proceed to the
generalization... But above all one must observe.
ManuscriptCollege de France
Medicine is destined to get away from empiricism
little by little; like all other sciences, it will get
away by scientific method.
Attributed
I consider the hospital to be a vestibule for
scientific medicine; it is the first field of
observation to which a physician is exposed.
However, the laboratory is the temple of science.
Written in when splitting from his collaborator
François Magendie
In pathology, as in physiology, the true worth of an
investigator consists in pursuing not only what he
seeks in an experiment, but also what he did not seek.
AttributedJeffrey Bernard –
British journalist and wit
I read that a member of the General Medical
Council has called on his colleagues for quicker
identification and treatment for alcoholic doctors.
They apparently consider heavy drinking to be
more than four pints of beer a day, or four doubles
or a bottle of wine a day. I should have thought that
to be the national average lunchtime consumption.
Low LifeAneurin Bevan –
British Statesman
Our hospital organization has grown up with no
plan, with no system. I would rather be kept alive in
the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than
expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one.
Speech in the House of Commons, April ()
The doctors are too narrowly educated.
Attributed to Bevan in Harley Streetp. , Reginald
Pound. Michael Joseph, London () ·