202 Medicine. 



the more important revolutions and improvements? 

 v^^hich distinguish the last age, and to commemo- 

 rate a feviT of the illustrious names to w^hom the 

 praise of them is chiefly due/ 



Within the period assigned for this review, the 

 state of medicine has been essentially changed, 

 and has acquired a degree of extent, popular dis- 

 semination, and practical usefulness, unknow^n to 

 preceding ages. The improvements in natural 

 history and chemistry, mentioned in the preceding 

 chapters, have greatly contributed to this exten- 

 sion, and may be considered as inexhaustible 

 sources of materials calculated for a similar exten-^ 

 sion in future times. The more enlarged inter- 

 course of mankind, the greater facility of commu- 

 nicating opinions and discoveries from one re- 

 gion to another, and the progress of commercial 

 arrangements, by which the choicest productions 

 of one country become the property of every other,, 

 may also be enumerated among the causes of this 

 advancement. 



In no period so much as in the last cen^tury, and 

 in no science more than that which now engages 

 the reader's attention, hav^e the advantages been 

 exhibited which arise from Lord Bacon's plan of 

 pursuing knowledge by observation, experiment, 

 analysis and induction. Every department of 

 medicine bears witness of the efficacy of this pro- 

 cess to remove the rubbish of prejudice and error, 

 to present truth in a simple form, and to establish 

 it upon a legitimate foundation. A more precise, 

 rigid and logical mode of philosophising has been 

 generally substituted for the wild and visionary hy- 

 potheses which disgraced the science of the pre- 

 ceding centuries. 



/ For many of the naniPs, facts, and details included in this chapter, thOS 

 2ltithor is indebted to a medical friend. 



