366 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



necessary to study the literary history of physic, to learn the 

 character of authors, and therefore the periods at which they 

 lived, the schools they belonged to, and the systems in which 

 they were engaged. But these particulars are only to be learned 

 from a history of physic ; and it is a study, therefore, which I 

 earnestly recommend to all my pupils. At the same time, I 

 must own, that this study cannot be entered upon to any length 

 till a man has acquired a good deal of knowledge in the art, 

 or at least of one system of it. It may, therefore, seem very 

 improper for me to offer this history at present to you, who may 

 be supposed to be but beginning the study of medicine. It is 

 certainly true, that, at present, to enter into any minute detail 

 on this subject, would be very preposterous ; but I am aware of 

 this, and I mean not to do so. I am to give you a slight and 

 general view only ; and I hope it is proper to give that general 

 view even at the very beginning of your studies. There will 

 be some use in carrying it along with you, as it may engage you 

 to mark many particulars relating to it, which, in the course of 

 your studies might otherwise pass unheeded. 



My proper business, on this occasion, is to give you the his- 

 tory of the branch I am to teach that is, of the practice of 

 physic only; but both for understanding that history better, and 

 for prosecuting hereafter the history of physic more generally, 

 I shall give you, as I can do it very shortly, a plan for the ge- 

 neral history of physic ; and I think it the more necessary here, 

 as it is a plan peculiar to myself, and you cannot have it else- 

 where. I propose now to give you a short account of what I 

 think may be called the Revolutions of physic that is, an ac- 

 count of the changes which, from time to time, have happened 

 in the method of cultivating the art, with the general effects of 

 these as well as history will allow us to discern them. 



With these views, therefore, I divide the history of physic by 

 marking in it seven periods, at each of which I suppose a con- 

 siderable revolution to have happened ; and in every different 

 interval between these, I suppose the art to have been in a dif- 

 ferent state. 



The first period extends from the beginning of the art till the 

 time at which philosophy was formally introduced into the 

 schools of physic. During this period, the art was cultivated 



