6 HUNTERIAN ORATION. 



tools for the purpose, and neglect to learn 

 its mechanism, by which alone he can be 

 able to discover the causes of the error, 

 or stoppage of its different movements, and 

 consequently what is wanting to be done, to 

 render it again perfect or useful. Yet 

 equally absurd would be the conduct of 

 medical men, were they to study botany, 

 pharmacy, chemistry, and natural philo- 

 sophy, searching indeed through all the 

 paths of nature, and the stores of art, for 

 means of cure, and yet neglect anatomy, by 

 which alone they can be able to distin- 

 guish the nature of the difference between 

 health and disease, and consequently what 

 is requisite to reconvert the latter into the 

 former ; which is the only circumstance that 

 can render medicine a science. 



It seems to be my fate. Gentlemen, when- 

 ever I address you, to be doomed to speak 

 of the importance of opinions ; yet I cannot 

 avoid it, the necessity of the case absolutely 

 demands it; for the reasoning powers of 

 man, which, when well directed, lead to 

 the discovery of truth, and the formation of 

 useful opinions, when misemployed, elicit 



