PHVSIOLOGY OP ORGANIC LlFE. 129 



the medium of observation, and of accident. 

 The best physician existing can no more tell 

 the cause why tartarised antimony has an eme- 

 tic, or the sulphate of magnesia, a cathartic 

 effect, than the most ignorant nurse living 5 

 much less, (if total ignorance would admit of 

 degrees,) how specific remedies produce spe- 

 cific effects, in curing particular complaints. 

 Let it not, therefore, be arrogantly asserted, 

 that there is any science in pathology, or in 

 the practice of medicine ; it is absolute 

 quackery.* 



The ignorance which exists respecting the 

 actual functions of the organs which meliorate 

 the blood in point of quality* extends to those 



* I wish, however, to be clearly understood ; I speak of the 

 practice of medicine as a science, not as an art . The observa- 

 tions and experience of intelligent and sensible men have been 

 the means of employing the different remedies to the greatest 

 advantage, which relieve and cure different complaints ; and, 

 the man who has the greatest experience, and who has the best 

 capacity to make observation on the progress of the different 

 symptoms of the same disease, and to compare different dis- 

 eases with each other, is, unquestionably, the man who is most 

 likely to constitute the best physician. With respect to sur- 

 gery, there is, perhaps, no branch of art that has undergone, 

 within the last thirty years, greater improvements, not only 

 as to the instruments employed, but also in the mode of 

 using them ; and the sufferings of mankind have, in conse- 

 quence, been greatly mitigated ; these observations may, i 

 some degree, be applied to the obstetric art also. 



K 



