WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 71 



sick wards, looked at the tongues and urine of the patients after 

 him, felt their pulse, and superintended the orders about their diet. 

 He copied the prescriptions regularly; marked them with a red cross 

 when the patient recovered and with a black one when they died. 

 His sheets grew by degrees to the size of a book, and when noth- 

 ing new presented itself to be added, he began in the first instance 

 to practice on a small scale, and then started on the full career of 

 a physician. He was skilled in diagnosis, and had his prescrip- 

 tions for the various cases. Tliose with the red crosses came first ; 

 if unsuccessful, then followed the black. In this way he acquired 

 experience. He was very orthodox, and on the Sabbath, refrained 

 from writing prescriptions, but dictated them in the apothecary's 

 shop to an assistant. He commenced with " Rx" (this meant reci- 

 pe); "Tart. Emet., two grains" (i. e. Tartari Emetici grana duo); 

 Syr. Alili. (i. e. Syrupus Altheaa.) He could not read his own pre- 

 scriptions, but his fame, as a practical physician, was so well estab- 

 lished that the regularly educated physicians in OfiFenbach could 

 not succeed in putting an end to his career, on the ground of his 

 never having received a medical education. Hence, empiricism 

 lived and flourished at the expense of the learned profession. 



Practical farmers, who reject theory, art and science, with book 

 farming, and cling alone to tradition, are very much like the Offen- 

 bach doctor. 1st, The recipe iiiarked with the red cross is worded 

 thus : " Dung, ashes and muck ;" those with the black cross, " Put 

 no trust in chemistry or chemists, scientists or science. 2d, Facts, 

 and opinions, chiefly the latter, should be heeded." 3d, "Brook 

 no opposition from scientists, theorists or chemists." 



But there is fortunately another class who seek for the "why," 

 regarding knowledge as above empiricism. They desire to under- 

 stand the art of farming, deeming it as an art, what it really is, the 

 antecedent of science. 



Art, says Mr. Cash, has generally preceded science. There were 

 bleaching and dyeing and tanning, and artificers in copper and iron 

 before there was chemistry, to explain the processes used. Wine 

 was made long before the laws of fermentation were known ; and 

 porcelain and glass were manufactured before the nature of alkalies 

 had been determined. The pyramids of Nubia and Egypt, the pal- 

 aces and sculptured slabs of Ninevah, the cyclopean walls of Italy 

 and Greece, the obelisks and temples of India, the cromlechs and 

 druidical circles of countries formerly Celtic, all preceded the 

 sciences of mechanics and architecture. There was music before 



