10 HUNTERIAN ORATION. 



in this respect also, well displayed the re- 

 sults of diiFerent dispositions or powers of 

 mind, by the following simile. " The em- 

 pirics," says he, " like ants, only lay by 

 stores and use them ; the rationalists, like 

 spiders, spin webs out of themselves ; but 

 the bee takes a middle course, collecting her 

 matter from the flowers of the field and gar- 

 den, and digesting, and elaborating it by 

 her native powers." 



It was shortly after the establishment of 

 the Alexandrian school, that, as Celsus in- 

 forms us, the practice of medicine was first 

 separated into three parts, and each part 

 consigned to a different person, one of 

 whom was supposed to cure diseases by 

 compounds of drugs and other substances ; 

 another by regimen and plans of diet ; and 

 the third by manual operations and instru- 

 ments. This partition seenis to have been 

 both an effect and a cause of tliat confusion 

 betweeu the object of medicine, and the 

 means of accomplishing it, which has ob- 

 tained more or less ever since that period. 

 The bulk of medical knowledge, was, how- 

 ever, at that time too diminutive, to permit 



