Cronian Lectures on the Colon, Jfi^ 



Ijes close upon the latter, and that a swellmg- or piiffiness in the 

 one may be easily, without due care, and has often been, attri- 

 buted to the other. I take that opportunity to state some priority 

 of claim I have in my observations on the duodenum before Dr. 

 J. Hamilton, jun., of Edinburgh, because some of the periodical 

 journals have asserted that Dr. Hamilton had preceded me in this 

 field of inquiry in an excellent work which he has published. The 

 dates will show the reverse. Many similar ideas are entertained 

 in both these publications without any communication having pre- 

 viously taken place between the authors ; thus giving confirmation 

 to the correctness of the statements, and stamping a greater value 

 upon them. I read the Gulstonian lectures before the College in 

 May, 1817; and the extracts from them were published in the 

 Transactions for the year 1820. Dr. Hamilton's book was pub- 

 lished at Edinburgh in 1819. Thus the Gulstonian lectures were 

 delivered two years before Dr. Hamilton's publication made its 

 appearance. 



It is a usual and a good rule to give an anatomical description- 

 of the parts, the functions, and diseases of which it is intended to 

 detail — it brings the whole subject more completely within the 

 mind's eye ; and whatever connexion there may be between the 

 structure, functions, and diseases, such connexion is brought more 

 directly under our consideration. But whatever amplification our 

 knowledge may derive from the study of anatomy, whatever pre- 

 cision it may give in the detection of the locality of disease, yet an 

 intimate acquaintance with minute anatomical structure is not 

 so essentially necessary as it appears to the successful practice of 

 physic : for it does not make the physician at all acquainted with 

 the effects of remedies in the proper treatment and alleviation of 

 disease. Did our knowledge of the minute structure of the kidnies, 

 or of the absorbent system, lead to the use of calomel, of digitalis, 

 or of the different salts, as diuretics? What analogy have we dis- 

 covered between the internal coat of the intestines and the eftect» 

 of jalap, of scammony, or rhubarb, or aloes, notwithstanding the 

 excellent knowledge we have derived from the labours of Peyer, of 

 Malpighi, of Lieberkuhn, and of Brunn? What between chylo- 

 poetie derangement and blue pill? between squill and cevtaia 

 diseased states of the thoracic contents ? Is there any thing in the 

 structure or appearance of the nerves which leads to the use or the 

 knowledge of the effects of opium ? You will look in vain to the 

 same quarter for any thing which would teach you the use or 

 effects of belladonna, of stramonium, or of colchicum. In viewing 



