LECTURES INTRODUCTORY, &c. 



" GENTLEMEN, 



OUR business here is to give a course of lectures on the prac- 

 tice of physic ; and I am now to give you the ordinary intro- 

 duction to it, that is, to deliver the literary history of this branch 

 of science. 



It has been commonly thought that this part of our work is 

 of little importance, and it is therefore very carelessly attended 

 to ; but I am well persuaded, that this is a great and hurtful 

 mistake. It is indeed the business of students at college to 

 learn one system only, and that as delivered by their professor, 

 without attempting to read many books ; but, in the time al- 

 lowed to our courses, it is impossible to deliver even one system 

 very completely, so that a great deal must be left to be learned 

 afterwards from books. And though the system taught were 

 more complete than it commonly is, I should have a mean opi- 

 nion of the genius of a student, who, being satisfied with that 

 alone, should implicitly receive the opinions of his master 

 -without inquiring after those of others, without considering what 

 doubts might be raised, or what objections might be made to 

 the system he had first imbibed. I maintain that such a stu- 

 dent would never understand even his own system sufficiently. 

 In short, gentlemen, how much so ever we may teach you in 

 college, your knowledge will be incomplete without a great deal 

 of after reading and study. For this purpose, it is absolutely 



