Xl INTRODUCTION. 



It has been with this vain expectation, that 

 every solid and fluid, of which vegetables and 

 animals are composed, have been analysed with 

 the most accurate nicety; and effects, which 

 altogether depend on vitality and animation, 

 have been attempted to be explained, from the 

 result of decomposition and of death. To this 

 total inversion of all principle, with respect to 

 the relation which exists between things exter- 

 nal to the animated system, and the animated 

 system itself is to be ascribed the absolute 

 ignorance which prevails, not only of the func- 

 tion of digestion, but of the operation of medi- 

 cine also ; not only of every organ, but of every 

 fluid of which the system is composed, Until 

 physiologists be made to feel that physiology is 

 still an art, not a science ; and pathologists, 

 that the practice of medicine is altogether empi- 

 rical ; until the state of error and of ignorance 

 which exists, be truly and fairly represented, I 

 see no hope whatever of improvement, or of 

 reformation. 



Much as there is to deplore with respect to 

 the application of physiology to practice, it is 



through which its properties and attributes can be attained. 

 I think it proper to give this explanation, in order that it may 

 not be objected to me, that I reprobate experimental philoso- 

 phy in general, the odium of which, I am persuaded, would 

 otherwise be attempted to be fixed on me. 



