xii INTRODUCTION.

omy, Botany, Chemistry, and the Materia Medica, are all branchesof Natural History, and are fraught with such amusement andutility, that the man who entirely neglects them has but a sorryclaim either to taste or learning. If a gentleman has a turn forobservation, says an excellent and sensible writer,* surely the nat-ural history of his own species is a more interesting subject, andpresents a more ample field for the exertion of genius, than thenatural history of spiders and cockle-shells.

We do not mean that every man should become a physician.This would be an attempt as ridiculous as it is impossible. All weplead for is, that men of sense and learning should be so far ac-quainted with the general principles of medicine as to be in a con-dition to derive from it some of those advantages with which it isfraught ; and at the same time to guard themselves against the de-structive influence of Ignorance, Superstition, and Quackery.

As matters stand at present, it is easier to cheat a man out ofhis life than of a shilling, and almost impossible either to detect orpunish the offender. Notwithstanding this, people still shut theireyes, and take everything upon trust that is administered by anypretender to medicine, without daring to ask him a reason for anypart of his conduct. Implicit faith, everywhere else the object ofridicule, is still sacred here. Many of the Faculty are no doubtworthy of a\\ the confidence that can be reposed in them ; but asthis can never be the character of every individual in any profes-sion, it would certainly be for the safety, as well as the honour ofmankind, to have some check upon the conduct of those to whomthey entrust so valuable a treasure as health.

The veil of mystery, which still hangs over Medicine, renders itnot only a conjectural, but even a suspicious art. This has beenlong ago removed from the other sciences, which induces many tobelieve that Medicine is a mere trick, and that it will not bear afair and candid examination. Medicine, however, needs only tobe better known, in order to secure the general esteem of mankind.Its precepts are such as every wise man would choose to observe,and it forbids nothing but what is incompatible with true happiness.

Disguising Medicine not only retards its improvement as a sci-ence, but exposes the profession to ridicule, and is injurious to thetrue interests of society. An art, founded on observation, can neverarrive at any high degree of improvement, while it is confinedter a few who make a trade of it. The united observations of allthe ingenious and sensible part of mankind, would do inore in afew years towards the improvement of Medicine, than those of theFaculty alone in o great many. Any man can tell when a medi-cine gives him ease as well as a physician ; and if he only knowsthe name and dose of the medicine, and the name of the disease,it is sufficient to perpetuate the fact. Yet the man who adds onesingle fact to the stock of Medical observations, does more realservice to the art than he who writes a volume in support of somefavourite hypothesis.

Very few of the valuable discoveries in Medicine have been madeby physicians. They have in general either been the effect of

* Observations on the Duties and Offices of a Physician.