2 8o OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



who made the body of man the object of his miracles, as 

 the soul was the object of his doctrine. For we read not 

 that ever he vouchsafed to do any miracle about honour, 

 or money (except that one for giving tribute to Caesar), 

 but only about the preserving, sustaining, and healing the 

 body of man. 



Medicine is a science which hath been (as we have said) 

 more professed than laboured, and yet more laboured than 

 advanced ; the labour having been, in my judgment, 

 rather in circle than in progression. For I find 'much 

 iteration, but small addition. It considereth causes of 

 diseases, with the occasions or impulsions; the diseases 

 themselve:;, with the accidents ; and the cures, with the 

 preservations. The deficiencies which I think good to 

 note, being a few of many, and those such as are of a 

 more open and manifest nature, I will enumerate, and 

 not place. 



The first is the discontinuance of the ancient and serious 

 diligence of Hippocrates, which used to set down 



Narra- & I > 



tionesmedi- a narrative or the special cases or his patients, and 

 how they proceeded, and how they were judged by 

 recovery or death. Therefore having an example proper in 

 the father of the art, I shall not need to allege an example 

 foreign, of the wisdom of the lawyers, who are careful to 

 report new cases and decisions for the direction of future 

 judgments. This continuance of Medicinal History I find 

 deficient ; which I understand neither to be so infinite as 

 to extend to every common case, nor so reserved as to 

 admit none but wonders : for many things are new in the 

 manner, which are not new in the kind ; and if men will 

 intend to observe, they shall find much worthy to observe. 

 In the inquiry which is made by Anatomy I find much 

 Anatomia deficicnce i for they inquire of the parts, and 

 comparata. their substances, figures, and collocations ; but 

 they inquire not of the diversities of the parts, the secrecies 

 of the passages, and the seats or nestling of the humours, 

 nor much of the footsteps and impressions of diseases : the 

 reason of which omission I suppose to be, because the first 

 inquiry may be satisfied in the view of one or a few ana- 



