4 HISTORY OF LIVER. 



many rival factions, which dominate by turns, -without 

 ever obtaining lasting power. The various theories 

 propounded, age after age, are so many arenas for 

 interminable discussions a real Tower of Babel ; it is, 

 in fact, the apple of discord among physicians. 



As an art, that is to say, in regard to the rules which 

 have been established at divers epochs for the cure 

 of diseases and the preservation of health medicine 

 appears to me to have followed a constantly j .regressive 

 march, from its origin in tin- mystic ages down to the 

 death of Galen, A.D. 200. Then it remain.-.! stationary, 

 or even retrograded, at least in Km-"]..-, until the end 

 of the fourteenth century of tin- Clu NL Hut 



from this epoch the healing art took a new and 

 bound, ami acquired from generation to geiieiatinn 

 remarkable perfection. Those who deny _ r ress 



of medicine have in -usly st i. 



"With these preliminary - the 



more special <>hjrct in view, "The ! XI > ITS 



DERANGEMENTS." 



< IIAPTER 1 



HISTORICALLY. It is an exceedingly interesting study 

 to trace the views which mi n at vai 



periods, and all ages, have formed relative t the func- 

 tions of individual organs of the body, and the diseases 

 to which these organs are liable; and there is no o: 

 wherein history attests a greater change of views, than 

 in the case >f the liver. 



By the divine Plato, 430 B.C., the liver was regai 

 as the central organ of vegetable life ; by Galen, 



