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Our compliments wait on your friends, and our 
tender love on you. 
I am, dear James, 
Your affectionate Father, 
JAMES SMITH. 
Mr. James Edward Smith to his Father. 
Honoured Sir, March 6, 1783. 
I cannot help expressing to you the dissatis- 
faction which I have experienced in my inquiries 
into the theory and practice of physic. I really 
believe medicine, if it deserves the name of science 
at all in its present state, is in the most barbarous 
condition of any science, and only now emerging 
from the greatest darkness and absurdity. It is 
commonly declared by all practitioners, that theory 
is nonsense, and that experience, that is empiricism, 
is everything. Cullen’s theory is visibly. going into 
the same state of contempt as Boerhaave’s has 
been reduced to, and his lectures are by no means 
consistent with it, though admirable as mere prac- 
tical lectures. These considerations and some other 
have induced me to attend Browne this winter; and 
I am happy in having done it, for his system and 
view of the human ceconomy are certainly the most 
philosophic of any, and are gaining ground in a 
wonderful manner: perhaps, however, he may have 
only his day. He has many of the most respectable 
pupils, and behaves very well to us. I am happy to 
have procured the admission of my friend Dr. Brous- 
