bourgelat’s introductory lecture. 649 
those principles of honour and honesty which were as earnestly 
enforced; he considers less his own interest in the employment 
of his talents, > than the inestimable advantage of being useful. 
Very far from confiding solely to his memory a multitude of 
•facts that he may have treasured in a certain order, and of which 
some, sooner or later, efface the traces of others, he regularly 
writes down all that he observes. The treasure-store is formed of 
. / . l ’ . > • » f • : TV- - * * 
the exact history of all the diseases that he has seen and treated. 
lie notes the species and character of each of them, their epoch, 
* • \ . • » • • 
their symptoms, and the apparent disorganizations to which they 
have given place; the causes that cpncurred in producing them; 
their complications, their course, their duration; the means by 
which they were terminated ; the predisposition of the object that 
had been afflicted ; the age, and also the sex; the choice of remedies 
that had been employed ; the reason that had determined that 
choice ; the times when, and the forms under which they had 
been administered, and the precise state of the disease at the 
moment of their administration; the changes or revolutions for 
the better or the worse that may have been the consequence, 
* * • ■ •• ■ ■ ■ k 
and those that ought to be attributed to nature; the results of 
the examination of the dead body ; in a word, he omits no 
circumstance that occurs, not even those that may appear 
to be trifling and minor, because even these may acquire, in 
their connexions and results, an unexpected importance. In 
consequence of this, every practitioner recording his individual 
knowledge, his errors, and his success, the art will insensibly 
rise on the immovable foundations of experience, of which a 
despicable and inefficient routine of practice has hitherto afforded 
scarcely a resemblance. 
4 i’ 
VOL. IV. 
