LECTURE I. 3 



No Study can surely be so interesting as 

 Physiology. Whilst other sciences carry us 

 abroad in search of objects, in this we are 

 engaged at home, and on concerns highly 

 important to us ; in enquiring into the 

 means by which we live, and move, and have 

 our being. To those however, engaged in 

 the practice of medicine, the study of Phy- 

 siology is indispensable; for it is evident 

 that the nature of the disordered actions of 

 parts or organs can never be understood, 

 nor judiciously counteracted, unless the na- 

 ture of their healthy actions be previously 

 known. 



The study of Physiology, however, not 

 only requires, that we should investigate 

 the nature of the various vital processes car- 

 ried on in our own bodies, but also that we 

 should compare them with similar processes 

 in all the varieties of living beings; not 

 only that we should consider them in a 

 state of natural and healthy action, but 

 also under all the varying circumstances of 

 disorder and disease. Few, indeed, have 

 studied Physiology thus extensively, and 



B 2 



