380 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



piric system. We shall only observe in general, that their plan 

 was sufficiently specious, and promised much ; but, so far as we 

 know, had no considerable effects. There were several men of 

 reputation who belonged to the sect, but in what they particu- 

 larly contributed to the improvement of medicine is not known. 

 Heraclidesof Tarentum was of the empiric sect, and is said to have 

 been a person of judgment and diligence in the study of the mate- 

 ria medica; but neither his writings, nor those of any other of the 

 same sect, produced what was to be expected from them, that is, a 

 more complete and accurate history of diseases and remedies ; 

 for, if any such had ever existed, it must have been so much 

 more valuable than any of the other writings of physicians, that 

 it would probably have been transmitted to posterity ; but we 

 have not any one writing of the ancient empirics now remaining. 

 We have this further proof of the fruitlessness of the empiric 

 plan, that it had little effect in suppressing the dogmatism 

 which, in those days, was certainly very frivolous ; but, in spite 

 of the empirics, the dogmatists were still very numerous, and 

 men of considerable rank and practice were daily appearing 

 amongst them. We have now no evidence remaining that the 

 empirics either made any improvement in the history and dis- 

 cernment of diseases, that they found out more efficacious re- 

 medies than had been known before, or that, with more preci- 

 sion, they ascertained and limited the use of those formerly em- 

 ployed. The scheme of the empirics was sufficiently specious, 

 but the accomplishment of it was only to be attained in the 

 course of many ages ; and, therefore, while men constantly found 

 it incomplete and imperfect, as it is even at the present day, 

 practitioners were ever ready to desert it, and to seek for those 

 aids which were promised by the other plans of physic. In short, 

 in this account of the different states of the practice, the men- 

 tion of the empiric sect was not to be omitted ; but the effects 

 of it, so far as I have been able to discover, are not at all known. 

 I have always thought that their plan was more specious than 

 solid ; and I think we have a certain proof of it in this, that it 

 had no effect either in exploding theory or in establishing prac- 

 tice. It might be supposed that their works have perished by 

 the lapse of time, but that is improbable. For, if the effects 

 had not been inconsiderable, they were likely also to have been 



