Chap. IV.] Medicine. 259 



to commemorate a few of the illustrious names to 

 whom the praise of them is chiefly due*. 



Within the period assigned for tliis review, the 

 state of medicine has been essentially cliangetl, and 

 has acquired a degree of extent, popular dissemina- 

 tion, and practical usefulness, unknown to precedino- 

 ages. The improvements in natural history and 

 chemistry, mentioned in the preceding chapters, 

 liave greatly contributed to this extension, and miiy 

 be considered as inexhaustible sources of materials cal- 

 culated for a similar extension in future times. The 

 more enlarged intercourse of mankind, the greater 

 facility of communicating opinions and discove- 

 ries fi'om one region 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 tlie 

 causes of this advancement. 



In no period so much as in the last century, and 

 in no science more than that which now engages 

 the reader's attention, have the advantages been 

 exhibited which arise from lord Bacon's plan of pur- 

 suing knowledge by observation, experiment, analy- 

 sis, and induction. Every department of medicine 

 bears witness of the efficacy of this process to remove 

 the rubbish of prejudice and errour, to present truth 

 in a simple form^ and to establish it upon a legiti- 

 mate foundation. A more precise, rigid, and logical 

 mode of philosophising has been generally substi- 

 tuted for the wild and visionary hypotheses which 

 disgraced the science of the preceding centuries. 



* For many of the names, facts, and details, included in tlxis 

 chapter, the author is indebted to a medic?] friend. 



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