What tidings does this little work bring to the medical world? Does it bring forth any new truths, calculated to benefit those who shall read it? The author, Johann Gottfried Rademacher, who was born in 1772, and died in 1850, practiced the medical art in the little town of Goch, in the northwestern part of Germany, during the first half of the XIXth century. He was an observing man, who in 1841 gave in plain, simple language the results of his ripe experience for the advancement of medicine, especially of therapeutics. His work, of which four editions were published, was written in German, appearing in two large volumes of over 800 pages each, from which the following abridged translation has been made.
Rademacher's Erfahrungsheillehre, or empiric medical practice, has at least one merit, it is original. He quotes a few authors, who agree with him, or to whom he may be indebted for his remedies or practice, but the bulk of his work is made up of his own rich fund of experience, with many instructive cases as illustrations. He never assumes a domineering air of superiority, nor does he seek to cover his ignorance with high-sounding, but empty words. In his meek, plain way he gives out what he knows, for the benefit of his readers, and acknowledges with frankness what he is ignorant of, willing to be taught of others, and ever ready to believe in the good faith of all those who are striving to allay the sufferings of mankind.
