37* INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



there was no other means of conducting the practice of physic. 

 On the contrary, we presume it is natural to man to inquire in- 

 to causes, and even to form theories with regard to the arts he 

 practises. Theory came afterwards, and this is what must 

 happen in every country advancing in refinement. Many per- 

 sons are disposed to admire the natural state of physic among 

 men, and to suppose that it proceeds to a wonderful degree in 

 the number and efficacy of the remedies it has discovered ; but 

 I imagine that this is founded rather in a love of the ancient 

 and marvellous and a partiality to empiricism, than on the real 

 value of any such art. Upon a close inquiry, I think it will 

 be found, that in this state of physic there is no exact discern- 

 ment of diseases or of their different circumstances ; and, with- 

 out both of these, we maintain that the application of the most 

 efficacious remedies is extremely precarious. The value of the 

 art, therefore, in this state, consists alone in the power of the 

 remedies it has become acquainted with ; but even in this way 

 it does not seem to go so far as has been commonly imagined. 



From the time of Thales, who founded the Ionic, and of Py- 

 thagoras, who founded the Italic school of philosophy, Greece 

 enjoyed a series of philosophers who were constantly making 

 advances in natural knowledge. The human body could not 

 fail to become the object of their study ; and we find that the 

 Pythagorean school was actually employed in dissection for the 

 sake of learning the structure of animal bodies. We find far- 

 ther, that the philosophers, upon many occasions, entered upon 

 the practice of physic. We find that these philosophers were 

 liable to despise the ordinary practitioners of physic for want of 

 science ; while, on the other hand, the practical physicians up- 

 braided the philosophers with their impotency in practice. The 

 physicians were probably in the right, as it is very certain that 

 the philosophy of those days could go but a little way without 

 an acquaintance with the facts which are to be learned only 

 from actual practice. It was the combination of philosophy 

 with a knowledge of the facts of physic, that could make any 

 considerable change in the state of the art ; and it was such a 

 combination therefore that gives us occasion to mark the second 

 period in the history of physic. 



Second Period. In a country advancing at the same time 



