458 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



mulations, we are immediately lost in conjectures 

 or fanciful opinions. It is much better, in the 

 present state of physiologial science, to seize and 

 act on what is certain, and, unless the facts which 

 are possessed allow us to secure a step beyond 

 these, to rest here. 



DLXI. Emetics were formerly more fre- 

 quently used in dropsical affections than at the 

 present day. Fashion, which regulates the most 

 trifling concerns of mankind, has gradually in- 

 fluenced the employment of emetics that regard 

 the powers of life. Every class of medicines is 

 subject to these changes of favour, and from 

 very obvious causes. By experience, or chance, 

 it is discovered that particular substances or 

 means act almost as specifics in this or that kind 

 of diseases. This .fact is no sooner proved than 

 the practice is immediately employed generally by 

 others in the same class of diseases : in some it 

 is found to be beneficial, but in the greater num- 

 ber to be injurious or inefficient. When physiolo- 

 gy and pathology have made us better acquainted 

 with the natural or morbid action of the most im- 

 portant functions of the animal economy, we 

 shall then see more clearly than we do, even at 

 present, the absurdity of prescribing remedies, 

 however much extolled, without taking into con- 

 sideration, the varieties of constitution, the influence 

 of pursuits or habits, the extent or character of the 

 disease, the exciting cause, and the season of the 



