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reach the bounds of what is already known in it? The great multiplicity of diseases, which beset the human race, present us with a field too vast and unknown for individuals to cultivate by themselves. Their causes are frequently so latent, and the usual resources of art so often fail the most skillful, as to compel them to seek out new paths in which they may proceed.
For a man of the most finished genius to enter upon practice, having only that stock of knowledge with which his own observation and experience could supply him, unenlightened by those discoveries which others have made, would be an act of presumption. Had this been sufficient to conduct us to the summit of our art, it would have been in a state of perfection many ages ago.
Observation and physical experiments should blend their light to dissipate obscurity from medicine. This is the more needful, as nature commonly offers herself to our notice under a cloud, and requires that we should follow her steps with scrupulous attention, watch all her motions, and trace her through every meander she makes, in order to discern clearly the tract she keeps in.[1] "In a course of observation, the mind is but a mere spectator, and only sees external appearances. We must aid these with the light of Philosophy to unveil knowledge fully. We must dive into the bottom of things by repeated
- ↑ Vid. Preface to the memoirs of the royal Academy of Surgery at Paris.
