EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
215 
the public would be gradually superseded. To facilitate the 
labour of reference, they analysed and classified the masses 
of facts in their possession, and thus it was that medicine 
was at last reduced into something like a practical system, of 
which the priests became the dispensers. It is by all writers 
agreed that the Egyptian priests were the first to bring 
into order the loose facts which former ages had collected; 
and that country was in consequence, very famous in ancient 
times for its medical knowledge, although, in this respect, it 
was ultimately surpassed by the Greeks. It was from these 
temple registers that the most famous physicians of an¬ 
tiquity derived the principles of their knowledge. It may 
be, that the remedies then employed, were what are usually 
designated simples, or herbs, although it is on record that 
chemical compounds were sometimes administered; these 
however, were not prepared by art, but found native/ 5 
Do we go too far when we say that it is this lack of science, 
this indifference to the why and wherefore/ 5 which tends 
to lessen somewhat the profession in the estimation of scien¬ 
tific men ? We cannot but think that it operates to our 
serious disadvantage by holding us back. Again, there is 
too often on the part of the practitioner, a determination not 
to deviate from an established routine of practice. It has 
answered well hitherto, is the statement made by him, then 
why should I alter it ? Have there been no alterations else¬ 
where ? Are thete no changes being effected in the consti¬ 
tutions of animals ?—no peculiar idiosyncrasies induced ? 
Are the pow r ers of animals so strong as they once where ? 
Have not the very artificial modes of living which are now 
resorted to been the means of lessening the resistance 
offered to disease, thus rendering the body more obnoxious 
to its attacks? or how is it that depletive and other active 
measures, once so successfully resorted to, cannot now be 
adopted? We think, that some physical change has been 
the consequence of the different modes of dieting of animals, 
and this is to be met or counteracted only by science, and 
an observance of its laws. And when we say this, we must 
also include the changes that are likely to be produced in 
those vegetables, on which the majority of our patients feed, 
by the use of the various artificial manures. , Often we have 
