319 



in order to remove sejbala, upon which he infers the disease to de- 

 pend: one practises from the curative result, the other with a view 

 to causes; one gives the purgative upon the general analogy that 

 such symptoms have been so cured, the other gives it on the par- 

 ticular analogy that in resembling cases scybala have been found in 

 the bowels, upon the removal of which the disease has ceased; on 

 is a loose, and the other is a minute observer. They have respec- 

 tively their disadvantages: the empiric may fail by overlooking the 

 particular analogy, which may be of principal importance; the man 

 of science may fail also, by an erroneous inference with respect to 

 the cause; a thing which happens every day, and nine times out of 

 ten, when we presume to assign a cause, where the agents of the pro- 

 cesses are not objects of the senses. 



29. It may be asked, what advantages then has the man of 

 science over the empiric? Where is the difference, whether the 

 same remedy be given with a particular design, the result of minute 

 observation, or whether it be given upon the general principle that 

 such a remedy has been found by experience to be curative? To 

 this I reply, as the same result would generally be attained in either 

 case, so in general the loose, and the observing practitioner would 

 ply their art with equal advantages. But the empiric may some- 

 times push a treatment, when the man of science would suspend it; 

 or, vice versa, the empiric would say, I have tried this remedy which 

 used to succeed, it has failed and I will abandon it : the man of 

 science would say, in the same case, this remedy which has hitherto 

 failed must be continued, or its doses increased, because it has not 

 yet produced that particular effect upon which I have observed the 

 restoration of health to depend. The chief advantages of the ob- 

 server are, that he has ascertained the dependence, or laws of the 

 disease, and he directs bis means according to his knowledge of these 

 laws, rather than from a vague expectation of a final result, to be* 

 accomplished he knows not how. 



30. If we would define this matter with greater precision, we 

 may say, the use of observation in medicine is to extend our know- 

 ledge of the particulars of the several states of disease, by which 

 we might be enabled to say, in a comparison of cases, in these re- 

 spects they agree, in these they differ; and direct or modify our 

 practice according to the circumstances of analogy or diversity. 



31. A remedy is employed for the cure of a disease, with a 

 view to the removal of a cause, either known or inferred. Nothing 

 is more common than for men to practise with this design; but the 

 instances in which the cause is known, are indeed very few, and 

 those in which a cause is inferred are mostly erroneous or equivo- 

 cal. This has been shewn in our preceding pages, where one 

 says disorder of the liver is the common or universal cause of 

 disease, another says the same of the stomach, another of the 

 excitability, &c. ; all this is fanciful: in these cases a cause has 

 been inferred, without analytical inquiry. We know that we re- 

 move a cause of vomiting aud constipation when we set free a 



