"Whatever this erudite historian in Medicine may say, doubt is not the last word of science, it is only the commencement of it, the point of departure. It is merely a favorable disposition for acquiring knowledge, certainty, or at least conviction. So taught Aristotle, so proclaimed Descartes, and the intimate sense of each one of us confirms the same. When we undertake the search for truth, it is with the desire and hope of attaining it, and if persuaded in advance that this desire and hope are vain... we would rest in careless repose, rather than uselessly fatigue ourselves in the pursuit of a chimera."
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Pierre-Victor Renouard, History of Medicine... (1867) commenting on Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel's statement "Skepticism in Medicine is the top stone of the science and... it is the wisest part to regard all opinions with indifference and adopt none."
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History of medicine
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