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enriched, whilst they themselves remain in a shameful indigence and obscurity, neglected by those to whom their labours prove so beneficial.[1]
Whilst Medicine from the greatness of its object, the preservation of the species, is one of the most useful subjects of knowledge to a state, and at the same time one of the most extensive and difficult; we must regret that the very different employment of a Physician, Surgeon, and Apothecary, should be promiscuously followed by any one man, however great his abilities. They certainly require very different talents. The infant state of a place, is sometimes used as an argument, not in support, but as an apology for such measures. The longer we follow any faulty custom, the more difficult we find the task to break through the shackles of it, even when it enslaves us to our greatest detriment.
Every mechanic art, and almost every employment in life, serve as instructive lessons to the practicioners of Medicine. The construction of a watch, the building of a house, nay the making of a pin, are striking examples of the truth of this assertion. In each of them a number of different artists are employed, who confining themselves every one to his own branch of business, the whole work is more quickly finished, and more highly improved. The length to which human skill may arrive, when thus pro-
- ↑ Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Surgery.
