2 INTRODUCTION. 



and certainty that may be attained in medicine. The 

 practice of medicine, or the " Art of Healing," is not of 

 recent birth, but stands coeval with the world's history. 

 The question is, " Did it spring from the natural wants 

 of iran ? " or as some ancient and modern philosophers 

 will have it, "an evidence of the degeneration of the 

 human species?" It belongs to history alone to solve 

 these questions; for, it appears from the most un- 

 doubted traditions, that there does noi 'id never 

 has existed a people, whether savage or civili/ed, win. 

 had not some crude and primitive kn" of medi- 

 cine. We are therefore com] -riled to concludr from this 

 fact, that the art of medicine is destined to ft 

 Ii:m:sisTii:i r, IMIT.KMUS, and a NATI'KAL \\ 



The art of medicine n. laid to he a 



which aims at the pivservat in >f health, the cure of 

 disease, and tlir physical perfection of man. In i 

 ages this art of healing consisted only in a succinct 

 description of diseases which had been observed, and 

 the indication of therein* hem. 



These two parts correspond 



named NOSOLOGY, and T : they relate to 



man in a state of disease only. 



Subsequently, those who devoted themselves to 

 practice of medicine enla; i of their 



observation: Nosological descriptions became more 



Mded. and therapeutical medications more 

 and precise. They became convinced, that to in. 

 stand (1: ,s necessary to study man 



state of health. Thus ANATOMY, or a knowledge of the 

 structure of the human body; and TuYsioLncv, or the 

 knowledge of the organic functions, became important 



