Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/17

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MEDICAL HISTORY.
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pied the ground. A knowledge of Anatomy laid the foundation for Physiology; Physiology prepared the way for Pathology, and the Principles and Practice of Medicine placed the experience of the whole world under contribution. Therapeutics claimed for her use the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms, the collateral sciences became cultivated as auxiliaries, and Botany, Mineralogy, Chemistry and Zoölogy became branches of medical study; and from these Pharmacy sprung up to be the handmaid of Materia Medica. An inquiry into the laws of life and causes of death laid the foundation for Medical Jurisprudence, and the consideration of the intellectual and moral faculties built up a system of Ethics. So that now, medical literature embraces a much larger field than any other profession; it may almost be said to have swallowed up all others. Whatever is valuable in history is hers—the experience of more than two thousand years is open to her inspection and use—and all the improvements and discoveries that are continually being made in every department of science are submitted to her observa-