INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 595 
to take its standing, where it has an unquestionable right, as 
second to the practice of human medicine. 
To this end, true principles must be inculcated, and their 
basis necessarily is science. Any indifference here is fatal, 
since principles are to practice what the fountain is to the 
stream, or the foundation to the building, which, if not 
securely laid, will, on the day of trial, fail to support the 
superstructure. The great use of practical science is the 
discovery of these principles ; nevertheless, I am not ignorant 
of the fact, for it is too patent, that most persons esteem 
knowledge only as it contributes to the obtainment of wealth 
— after which, perhaps, we all too earnestly seek ; and then, 
to make use of the metaphor of Lord Bacon, “ it is as the 
golden ball thrown before Atalanta, which, while she stoops 
to take it up, the race is hindered.” It is the ignorant man 
alone that affects to contemn science. It is hard to be 
acquired, he says, and no good results from an acquaintance 
with it. But what is science ? We will let Sir H. Davy 
answer this question. “ It is only the refinement of common 
sense, guided by experience ; generally substituting sound 
and rational principles for vague and popular prejudices.” 
Depend upon it, the struggle between truth and science on 
the one hand, and ignorance and empiricism on the other, 
is as the morning dawn contending with the shades of the 
receding night. For a little while the former may appear to 
be somewhat obscured, but the brightness of the noon-tide 
light will assuredly burst forth, even though it may seem to 
tarry. 
It has been truly said, that the present is a practical 
age ; not one in vdiich principles are discovered so much as 
that they are applied and rendered useful. Nor are we, at 
the same time, neglectful of the elegancies of life. By a 
powerful writer it has been observed, <c Science, in this our 
day, accomplishes unheard-of wonders. It makes an explosive 
pow r er of cotton, a horse of steam, a -workman of the voltaic 
battery, a messenger of the electric fluid, a painter of the 
sun. It bedews itself with subterranean streams, and warms 
itself w T ith central fires. It opens upon the infinite these two 
windows — the telescope upon the infinitely great, and the 
microscope upon the infinitely little ; and it finds stars in 
the first abyss, and insects in the second, by which it proves 
the existence of a God ! ” 
To some of you this may seem a digression ; but I feel 
assured that, to the neglect of the inculcation of scientific 
principles must be attributed the absurdities that have pre- 
vailed, and do still prevail, in the practice of physic, and to 
