HUNTERIAN. ORATION. H 



this subdivision to be continued, and we 

 find succeeding authors treat equally on all 

 these curative measures. 



The advantages which we derive from 

 anatomical knowledge are, that it enables 

 us to judge of the nature and probable 

 event of injuries and diseases, by the exact 

 information we possess of the situation and 

 connexions of every part of the body ; that 

 it enables us to perform the operations of 

 surgery with confidence in ourselves, and 

 security to our patients ; moreover, a correct 

 knowledge of structure is the only founda- 

 tion of all knowledge of function, without 

 which, we can never be able to distin- 

 guish the nature of the difference between 

 health and disease, nor consequently what 

 is requisite to reconvert the latter into 

 the former, which, I repeat, is the only 

 circumstance that can render medicine a 

 science. Now, though the dissections at 

 the Alexandrian school, were by no means 

 so perfect as to produce any of the important 

 consequences derivable from anatomy, yet 

 they led the way to the general investigation 

 of structure and function, and to the for- 



