xiv ENT R-O.BU © TI ON. 
ment of every individual, whofe occupation in life affords an opportunity _ 
of inveftigating this valuable branch of literature. No fcience prefents 
to our contemplation a more extenfive ficld of i important knowledge, ¢ or 
affords more ample entertainment to an inquifitive or philanthropic mind. 
Anatomy, Borany, Chemiftry, and the Materia Medica, are branches 
of natural Hiftory, fraught with fuch amufement and utility, that he who 
neglects them can have no claim to tafte or learning. The vegetable 
World, with its occult virtues and power, is, of all others, the fublimeft 
fubject for the exertion of genius, and affords the higheft gratification to 
a benevolent mind; fince there are no infirmities incident to our fallen 
nature that it does not enable us to alleviate or remove. 
It isa melancholy reflection, daily confirmed by obfervation and expe- 
rience, that one half of the human fpecies, labouring under bodily 
infirmity, perifh by improper treatment, or miftaken notions of their 
difeafe. What greater inducement then can be offered to mankind, | 
to acquire a competent knowledge of the fcience of phyfic, than he 
-prefervation of their own lives, of that of their offspring ? ? Not that it 
is neceflary for every man to become a phyfician s for fuch an attempt. 
would be abfird and ridiculous. AT I plead | for is, that men of fenfe, 
-of probity, and difcernment, fhould be fo far acquainted with the 
‘theory of phyfic, as to guard. their families: againft the deftru@ive influ- 
__-ence of ignorant or avaricious retailers of medicine. For, in the prefent 
- ftate of things, itis much eafier to cheat a man out of his life than of 
a fhillings at the fame time that ‘it is is eteno nt Supine ae either t to detect 
“oF punith the Sa eeous offenders” bit 
The benedies sefulting.from ecdicines sigaiiaiace = cadelisad derived 
from thofe unfortunately fanciful and imaginary difordered patients, 
“whofe fortunes are ample, and’ ‘whofe eftablithments comprife an annual 
— fer the — and apothecary. ‘Others again, whofe 
difcernment 
