599 
ON THE DOMESTIC QUADRUPEDS. 
disease and the effect of medicines, but of the laws of chemical 
affinity. Let us take the acetate of lead, which is decomposed 
by the alkalis, aether, the mineral acids, borax, alum, soap, 
antimony, and astringent infusions; or corrosive sublimate, which 
is decomposed by the alkalis, soap, sulphurct of potash, as¬ 
tringent substances, and some metals. These two examples 
will be sufficient to shew that the chemical affinities ought to 
be taken into great consideration when we prepare our 
medicines. By pursuing this direction, we shall purge our prac¬ 
tice of a crowd of puerilities. We shall no longer imagine that 
we have arrived at the summit of the art of healing, when we 
have fatigued our memories by learning that one herb is vulne¬ 
rary and another detersive, and a third cephalic, and a fourth 
carminative*, or recollecting the contents of the sympathetic 
powder, and the universal powder, and the grand electuary, or 
attributing virtue to the right w ing of a pigeon, or the foot of an 
elk, or the left foot of a tortoise, or the liver of a mole. 
We shall have a materia medica less boasting, of fewer me¬ 
dicaments, but the action of each of them certain, and the result 
of experience. We shall be able to determine the circumstances 
under which medicines exert their full influence. Our experi¬ 
ments will be conducted with order and precision; we shall 
be enabled to ascertain what belongs to the medicine, and what 
depends on the influence of the vital and nutritive pow ers. We 
shall not content ourselves by replacing one hypothesis by ano¬ 
ther : we shall not think that we have advanced the science by 
changing some denomination, or modifying some division. Our 
books will not become more numerous without increasing the 
circle of our know ledge ; our ideas will not remain the same, 
only otherwise strung together. The age in which we live does 
not permit us to follow' so disgraceful a course. The progress 
of comparative anatomy and of physiological and medical sci¬ 
ence will render us inexcusable, if we are not illuminated by the 
lights w hich are beaming' around us. 
* Among English veterinarians, White, in the second volume of his 
valuable but incongruous work, speaks of Abluents, and Absorbents, and 
Alexiphaiinics, and Alteratives, and Analeptics, and Anodynes, and Anti¬ 
septics, and Anlispasmodics, and Attenuants, and Carminatives, and Ca¬ 
thartics, and Caustics, and Cordials, and Demulcents, and Deobstruents, 
and Detergents, and Diaphoretics, and Digestives, and Diluents, and 
Emollients, and Emulsions, and Errhines, and Escbarotics, and Expecto¬ 
rants, and Febrifuges, and Fomentations, and Fumigations, and Hydra- 
gogues, and Laxatives, and Liniments, and Oxymels, and Pectorals, and 
ReJaxants, and Refrigerants, and Resolvents, and Rcstringcnts, and Robo- 
rants, and Rubefacients, and Sedatives, and Sialogucs, and Stimulants, and 
Stomachics, and Styptics, and Unguents, and many other strange things, 
disgraceful to our profession, but profitable to tho writer or the publisher, 
for his 'Treatise has reached nearly twenty editions. 
