Page:Best Mode of Increasing Medical Knowledge in CT (1795).djvu/12

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has had Quinsey's etc. and as all of them give different Accounts of the Medical Properties of both the simple and compound Remedies; and as one Physician has been instructed according to one Dispensatory, and another according to another, so different Ideas have been imbibed concerning the Natures of Medicines; and from hence also, when Practitioners who have been thus Educated have met, to consult upon any difficult, or dangerous case, they could not agree about the prescription, administration, and Effects of Medicines; and from this difference of sentiment, much contention has ensued, as is obvious to every One who has been acquainted with the Practice of Physic in this part of the globe. But we must not, however, impute the grounds of this discord altogether to the Dispensatories, for there are other Books which tend to produce the same evil consequences, as well as the different Instructions given by the different Teachers of the Medical Art. But he who does not understand an Art or Science, is by no means fit to teach it to others; and therefore and Ignorant Physician is wholly unfit to become a Teacher, because he may lead his Pupils astray. But it is time for me to hasten from this Digression, and proceed to the thing I proposed, viz. to describe the various Modes of Medical Instruction, etc.

I find that these Modes are different in the different Parts of the United States. In the Cities of Philadelphia, and New York, they have Colleges of Physicians where Eminent Professors read Lectures upon the various Branches of Learning. Hospitals are also erected in those