8 HUNTERIAN ORATION. 



of" one or other of these elements. They 

 might suppose, that diseases were of an 

 acid or of an alkaline nature ; they might 

 say, that there were powers, capable of per- 

 forming functions, nay even poetically ima- 

 gine essences endowed with such powers, and 

 speak of animse presiding over the different 

 functions, and of an archseus or master- 

 workman superintending the whole. You 

 know. Gentlemen, that all this and more of 

 the same kind has been thought and said by 

 reputed sages of the medical profession. 



Since, then, reasoning from false, insuf- 

 ficient, or irrelevant premises is productive 

 of error, we cannot wonder, that when me- 

 dical men in general first began to reason on 

 the causes and nature of diseases, and the 

 effects of remedies, if their speculations 

 were wild, and the conduct which such opi- 

 nions gave rise to, highly injurious. We 

 can feel no surprise, therefore, that a large 

 party of the medical profession should segre- 

 gate themselves, and resolutely interdict the 

 use of reasoning in medical practice, stead- 

 fastly resolving, in their conduct to be 

 guided solely by the dictates of experience. 



