PREFACE. xxxiii 



hazardous kind ; to wliich, indeed, the rashest trials of the most 

 ignorant village empiric, who derives the whole of his book- 

 learning from a well-thumbed copy of some old black-letter 

 herbal, are comparatively safe ; since, in the latter case, there is 

 some chance that his own experience may enable him to perceive 

 his error in time to retrieve it, and at the worst a salutary caution 

 would be inculcated, and a repetition of the trial avoided. 



The true method of combating the enemies of the fair practi- 

 tioner, is not by soliciting harsh penal laws against practitioners 

 who have studied at certain schools, or who have not been ap- 

 prenticed to medicine by their parents. For as the sick, disre- 

 garding the existing jealousies between the several ranks of 

 the medical profession, will solicit the advice of those persons 

 in whose knowledge they place confidence, the attempt only 

 leads both practitioners and patients to invent modes of evasion, 

 and widens the breach between the different branches of the 

 profession. If we reflect upon the existence of smuggling in 

 spite of the whole power of government arrayed against it, and 

 the great rewards offered to discover offenders, we shall be con- 

 vinced that no legal restraints, however strictly worded, can 

 forcibly restrain the practice of medicine to any set of monopo- 

 lists, as long as both patients and unlicensed practitioners have 

 a common interest to elude them : while the attempt only pro- 

 duces irritation on both sides, and prevents persons, having a 

 ')mmon study and interest, from meeting in good fellowship 

 Lr)gether, and is thus highly derogatory to that enlargement 

 of mind which ought to distinguish the members of a scientific 

 profession. The right mode is, surely, to rest content with 

 r'curing their proper distinctions to those who have gone through 

 he trouble and expense of obtaining them, and on the other 

 and, bestowing these honorary distinctions only on those that 

 merit them ; but leaving the sick and their friends perfectly at 

 Iil)erty to search for relief wherever they think it most likely to 

 be found — thus creating an honourable competition and rivalry, 



I stead of that continual bickering which at present pervades the 

 flerent branches of the medical profession ; as they may be 

 ell assured that the mass of mankind are not so blind as to be 

 capable of judging in a matter that so nearly concerns them as 

 leir health, or so inattentive to their own interest, as not to 



