Sketches of the Philosophy of Life

Front matter

SKETCHES OP THE PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. Jusl published, 4th Edition, in 2 voh. Sic. price 11. 4s. FRANCE.— By LADY MORGAN : with Four Appendices by Sir T. C. M. on the State of Law, Finance, Medicine, and Political Opinion. " Pourvu que je ne parle enmes Merits, nide V autorite,ni du culte, nidela politiqve, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni des corps en credit, ni de /'opera, ni des autres spectacles, ni de personne qui tienne a quelque chose : je puts tout imprinter librement, sous l'inspection de deux qu trois censeurs." — Mariage de Figaro. In the Press, FLORENCE MACARTHY : An Irish Tale: hy LADY MORGAN, author of "France," " O'DONNEL," &C. 4 VOls. " Les femmes ne sont pas trop cfhumeur 4 pardonner de certaines in jures ; et quand elles se promettent le plaisir de la vengeance, elles n'y vont pas de main morte." — Mem. de Grammont.

SKETCHES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE. BY SIR T. C. MORGAN, M.D. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, OF LONDON. 'PiTv rd oXx Tsorafiov Sixw. n n'y a point de doute que les besoins physiques ne dependent iiumediate ment de l'organisation ; mais les besoins moraux n'en dependent Us pas egale ment, quoique d'une maniere moins directe ou moins sensible ? Cabanis Rapport du Physique et du Moral de I'Homme. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN, CONDUIT STREET. 1818. J, Gillet, Printer, Crown-toart, Tleet-street. CONTENTS. Preliminary Remarks I

Chapter I. The Character And Causes Of Organic Combinations

General connexion of existing species in nature — Active powers of matter, mechanical, chemical, vital — Organic and unorganized bodies not in all cases easily distinguishable — Organized bodies results of inorganic elements, modified by function. Hence they have determined forms, and a circumscribed duration — Death — Equivocal generation — Origin of existing species — Origin of individuals ab ovo — Species circumscribed in number. — Of Living Action — Assimilation — Elimination — Peculiarities of organized beings arise out of their chemical constitution — Mechanism of assimilation and elimination — Vascularity of organized bodies — Conditions of assimilation — Living species co-exist by a proportionate harmony — Balance of assimilation and elimination in the different stages of life — Life independent of motion — Organic identity — Assimilation and elimination (the functions of nutrition), aud those of generation, all that essentially belong to the idea of life : vegetables do not feel — Sense and motion, the functions of relation or of animal life — Causes of the differences between animal and vegetable forms — Vegetables the result of simpler combinations ; therefore more permanent and less dependent on function. Further simplicity of Vegetables, resulting from the nature of their food ...... VI CONTENTS. 63

Chapter II. Of Organization

Organized bodies consist of solid and fluid parts — The relative proportion of these varies in different structures — Their influence in the economy reciprocal — Organic Action, energetic in proportion to the fluid constitution of the subject — Solidification, a result of living action, and necessary cause of death — Primordial Fibre, a theoretic notion — Tissues, the simplest cognizable organic forms — Cellular Tissue, the basis of organized structures — Its constitution, secretions, serum, fat — Its blood-vessels, &c. — Nerves — Arrangement of cellular tissue, illustrated in the muscular structure — Of the vascular tissues, Arteries, Veins, Absorbents, Capillaries — Structure of Vessels — Hydrostatic Law, which governs the movements of the fluids in the vascular systems — Proper tissue of the several organs — Their physical and vital relations to the function of each organ — Combination of Tissues — Comparison of Vegetable and Animal Organization—One System of causation common to both — Of the Fluids — Nutritive and secreted fluids, both formed by the energy of the solids — Blood, its Coagulation — Proximate Principles — Fibrine — Albumen — Gelatine Saline Ingredients — Red Globules — Constitution of fluid blood — Blood of different animals— Chyle — Lymph, Theory of organic fluids imperfect— Difficulty respecting Azote Secreted Fluids.

Chapter III. Of The Combination Of Organs And Functions

The number and combinations of organs regulated by a strict necessity— Uniformity of Organization— Assimilating Organs follow two types, animal and vegetable— Various CONTENTS. VII Organs of Mastication and Prehension— Teeth of herbivorous and of carnivorous Animals — Brief statement of the facts con nected with Digestion — Structure of the Alimentary Tube — Interior Mucous Coat — Gastric Juice — Muscular Coat — Peritoneal ditto — Two leading forms of the Intestinal Canal, carnivorous and herbivorous — Other Varieties — Liver con nected with digestion, and with sanguification — Bile, its Functions — Reasons for supposing the liver a decarbonizing organ — Pancreatic Secretion — Spleen — Circulating System — Animal and Vegetable Types— General Views — Propulsion of blood through the Capillaries — Varieties in these structures dependent on the respiring organs — Agency of Organized Beings on air — Relation of Respiration to Mus cular Motion — Respiratory Organs of Birds, Mammalia, Reptiles, Fish — Of the inferior animals — Varieties of Mechanism in the Organs of Respiration — History and Theories of Respiration — Hippocrates, Boyle, Willis, Meade, the Pneumatic Chymists — Phenomena of Pulmonary Function - Phenomena and Theory of Animal Heat.

Of the Secretions — General Remarks — Exhalation, fol licular and glandular secretions, an unfounded distinction — Secretions the result of Vitality — Glands, secreting and lymphatic — Of the secreting glands, those which are subser vient to nutritive life are the most constant — Mucous Mem branes — Serous membranes — Urinary Organs — Urine of carni vorous and herbivorous Animals— Uric Acid— Skin considered as an organ of secretion in various animals — Relation of the perspired fluids lo the urinary and intestinal secretions — Causes of variety in the glands connected with relative ex istence. — Nervous Apparatus — Difficulties — Deductions from Comparative Anatomy— Nervous Functions of all animals the same — Subordinate functions of the different nervous organs — Cerebral and sympathetic systems— Brain not the specific organ of perception — Adaptation of nervous apparatus to external nature.— Bones— Three Types of animal structure — Structure of Bone — Bony Earth — Primordial CONTENTS. 104 205 Cartilage — Ossification — 3Iollities Ossium — Mechanical Remarks.- Muscles — Modifications, mechanical facts, Tendons, Aponeurosis — Combined Action of Muscles — Antagonist Muscles — Relation of Nerves and Muscles. — Of the Generative System — Ignorance on this subject — Influence of the generative system on the general organi zation — Limitation of Species — Monsters — Mutual influence of species — Plurality of Worlds ...

Chapter IV. Of The Laws Of Vital Action

Bounds of the Enquiry— Sensatiou and Reaction — Their several varieties— Comparison of the moving forces in nature — Conditions of vital action, presence of nutritive fluid, duration of stimulus — Permanence of reaction after the stimulus is removed — Relations of quantity in stimuli — Excessive stimulus — Accumulated and deficient sensibility — The ratio recipients — Theory of catarrh — Deficient stimulus — Appetites — St. Vitus's Dance. — Habit — Its influence on the sentient fibres, on the nutritive functions, on the contracting fibre, on perception, and judgment — Alternation of stimulus — OcularSpectra —Theory of agreeable colouring — Regulated repetition of stimuli. — Sympathy — Instinct — Explanation of some apparent cases of sympathy — Ghosts — Sympathy between individuals — Mesmerism. — Association — Local and diffusible stimuli. — Orgasm — Chilliness after dinner — Resistance to pain — Bion's critique on a line of Homer — Rending garments, in grief— Brunoniun practice of physic— Intoxication— Tonic stimuli— Phenomena of Contraction — Fatigue, spasm, nutritive contraction. — Sleep — not a fuuction — Partial sleep — Dreams — Somnam bulism — Nocturnal animals. — Delirium — Influence of temperature on sleep. — Hybernation — Sleep of plants Affections of the nutritive functions during sleep . CONTENTS. IX 273

Chapter V. Mental Phenomena

Relative sensibility dependent on the same causes as organic life — No centrum commune — Each tissue has its own mode of sensibility — Ideas do not resemble their prototypes — The belief of an external nature makes part of per ception — Sensations alike in all individuals — The reaction varies — Retention — Association of ideas — Memory, imagination, judgment, abstraction, invention, different modes of Association — Instinctive and voluntary or reasonable acts, proceed from the same mechanism — The distinction arises out of two modes of viewing the same fact — Pain and pleasure, the great motives of action ; also defect of stimulus — The passions — Their connnection with organic life — Pseudo-passions, ennui — Sympathy with sensitive beings a motive of action — All organized action necessitated — Passions not subject to the will — How controlled — Influ ence of education -Sudden changes of character — Repen tance—National character — Sensitive and remembered im pressions, how distinguished — Recollection independent of the will — Mechanism of mpmory — Of Reason — Lan guage — Analysis — Synthesis — Judgment — Syllogism — De lirium — Drunkenness — Recapitulation — Estimate of the comparative powers of animals; and of men amongst each other — Ideot, dolt, common man, genius, eccentric, lunatic, — Universal genius — Theory of life, origin, &c. of the spiritual system — Reasons for rejecting both a spiritual and a material principle of life. ......

Chapter VI. Phenomena Of Disease

Sickness and health essentially connected — Each tissue has its own maladies. Diseases are organic or functional X CONTENTS. — General or local — Acute or chronic — Vis medicatrix — Influence of habit on disease — Contagious diseases — Instant death from excessive stimulus — Local morbid stimuli — Air and diet the two great sources of morbid stimulation. — General observations on diet. Errors more frequent in quantity than in quality — Relative digestibility of different articles of food — Influence of climate on the diet. Intervals of abstinence in different animals- — Preternatural fasts — Fasting woman of Tutbury — Eve Fleigen — Liquid aliment — Quantity of nourishment necessary to health — Affections of the atmosphere. Oxygenation — Barometrical condition— Hygrometrical ditto— Temperature — Moral and physical effects of climate — Of sudden changes of temperature.

Regulation of temperature in disease— Influence of climate on disease—Occult qualities of the atmosphere— Inlets to disease — Diseases follow the organic balance— Maladies of infancy, puberty, manhood, old age— Consequences of inflammation in the different tissues— Sympathy— Metastasis— Incompatible diseases — Curative intentions— Impediments to the success of medicine — Estimate of the art — Modus operandi of medicines — Blood letting. Cathartics — Applications to the skin — Nauseating remedies — Diffusible stimuli — Tonics — Remedies not applicable to diseases but to functions — No real specifics — Applications to the imagination — Conclusion ERRATA. Page 22, line 1, for extensive read excessive. — 34, — 22, dele and. — 43, — 3, for they, read those beings. — 87, — 12, — both in, — in both. — 98, — 1, — with, — from. — Ill, — 6, — Chyle, — Chyme. •— 126, — 21, — their, — the. — 204, — 4, — errestres, — terrestres. — 372, — 1, — Girton, — Girtin. — 394, — penult. — des cause, — 1 action de« causes. — 394, — last — Celles, — Celle. — 401, — 18, — hasten, — hastens. — 421, — 4, — their, — his. — 439, — 8, — 'Ai — *A. — 447, — 2, — produce, — produces.

SKETCHES of the PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Xpv Trxvrxc 'avOpuirovf 'rnirpixr\v riyyrtv 'nridluvdat, u iTnroxpxTec, xxXov yap xy.x xxi typipipov tc rov filou .... tirlopinv <ro(fir\c ydg Soxiu tnrfixyc dSfXtpyv xdi jrwoixoii. Democriti Epistola ad Hippocratem de Natura Hominis. " The knowledge of truth is the sovereign good of human nature." Bacon's Essays. OF the various modes of exertion incidental to the necessities of the species, the labour of thinking, it would appear, has ever been consi dered the most intolerable ; and society, in all ages, has been prompt to lend credence and to bestow recompense upon those who are willing to take upon themselves the task of dictating the opinions, and of regulating the con duct of the rest of the community. l: Despotic government, juridical, religious and medical imposition, are the fruit of this intel lectual indolence ; and even the passion for accumulating wealth, which seems impressed on man as an instinct, and for which all other interests are so generally abandoned, is thus turned aside from its obvious end, and becomes a burden imposed upon the many for the exclu sive benefit of the few.

The profession of Physic, more especially, has been stigmatised as peculiarly susceptible of dupery and deceit, and the extreme ignorance which has universally prevailed on the subject justifies the accusation.* In the earliest epoch of its history, this lucrative branch of science was in the possession of the priests, who added to the fascinations of its own intrinsic mysteries the spells of a still more unintelligible supersti tion. The votive offerings which lined the walls of their temples prove that their success was at least equal to their ignorance. -f When the two professions were separated, the practice * " Itaque hercule, in hac artium sola evenit, ut cuicun que medicum se profitenti statim credatur ; cum sit periculum in mi Ho mendacio majus." Plinii Hist. N. 29. 1. f Among the works of the ancient physicians which have been preserved, the writings of Hippocrates alone are conof physic seems to have been abandoned to the lowest classes of society, and to have been frequently placed in the hands of slaves.

Horace associates its professors with gypsies and other similar impostors ;* and Athenæus tells us, that Aristotle himself became adoctor,uponthefailure of what probably were considered more ho norable means of subsistence.^ It is only since knowledge has been more equally diffused by the art of printing, that physic and surgery have been elevated to real utility. For as the re formation in religion, by habituating the people ceived in a philosophical spirit. Democritus, who probably lost his sight by an excessive use of its organs (for the story of his putting out his own eyes is too absurd for belief) seems to have understood the right method of investigating nature; but his works have unfortunately not survived. The other Greek philosophers mingled their scanty knowledge of physiology with their own visionary theories ; and the professed medical writers copied each other with provoking servility." * Sat.

II. "|" 'EiJwj xa» 'Exrixouf ov toj> piAaXuSarJolov, tccvt Iittovtx ot» M.a.rotQccyuv t« irarfwot, !xr» <f\(>XTtixv eSSffttjsst, x«i on Elf TfliUTfl XaXCUf Wf &TTUV, ITTI TO tpx^jXXXOTTUXui/ T]X9lV. Athenai Deipn. VIII. The pharmacopola was analogous to our quack doctor ; and, as appears from an observation of M. Cato, was equally verbose and high-promising. " Itaque auditis non auscul tatis, tamquam pharmacopolam ; nam ejus verba audiuntur ; verum ei se nemo committil si æger est." Apud Axil Gell. B to moral and polemical discussion, forced th* priesthood to abate from the arrogance of their pretensions, to cultivate learning and to practice piety, so the dissemination of natural science has diminished quackery in medicine, and urged the regular practitioner to extend his observations beyond the superstitious routine in which, as in a magic circle, his energies were heretofore most scrupulously confined.

But the necessity for a general diffusion of this kind of knowledge is more immediate. The familiar proverb assumes, that every individual " at forty is a fool or a physician ;" and after the experience of forty years of error in the management of the constitution, that person may indeed be deemed dull who has not by his sufferings been taught a few maxims of selfgovernment. But the small stock of empyrical knowledge thus acquired is seldom adequate to the intended purposes. It serves rather to generate a quantum of prejudice and obstinacy just sufficient to mislead others, and to baffle the efforts of the medical attendant to whom it is opposed. The animal machine is an instrument upon which, in the daily occurrences of life, an in finity of experiments are made, by the least of which it is liable to be thrown out of order.

Yet persons of all classes in society, the most educated equally with the most uncultivated, persist boldly, blindly, and confidently to apply to it all kinds of re-agents; and to abuse its energies, in absolute ignorance of its springs and modes of action. The treatment of disease, when it arises, can rarely be trusted with safety to other hands than those of the professional practitioner : but its prevention can alone be rendered probable by a clear know ledge of the effects of external agents, and of the real necessities of the machine. These observations, strongly as they apply to individuals, acquire an additional weight, as they bear upon communities and legislative bodies. Absurd quarantine laws, taxes promoting the adulteration of the necessaries of life, or militat ing against cleanliness and ventilation, false ideas and absurd enactments concerning mad ness, poisonings, and infanticide, are a few only, among the many immediate consequences of the gross ignorance which has prevailed, and still does prevail upon this topic.

Ut teipsum serves, non expergisceris ? atqui Si noles sanus, cunts hydropicus. Besides these immediate and somewhat obvious interests, there are others, more remote, but not less intrinsically connected with the diffusion of physiological information. The necessities of man, and the means which he possesses of gratifying them, are in immediate dependence upon his organisation. All his relations in society result immediately from the one or the other of these sources, and are corollaries depending upon the laws of organic action. Thoughts and desires are but modifications of those parts, through whose operation they are engendered; and moral motives, like physical stimuli, derive their power from the condition of the structure on which they act. These considerations have hitherto been too generally overlooked.

Moralists and legislators, ignorant of their own structure, have persisted in considering mind as abstracted from organization ; and have contented themselves with the contemplation of one half only of their subject. The connection between moral reasonings and physiology has, notwithstanding, been felt by those writers who have the most success fully cultivated the philosophy of mind and of language; and Aristotle, in inventing the appel lation of " metaphysics"* for these pursuits, has eternized his sense of the route which best leads to their attainment. But the authority of great names is not wanting to give credence to this proposition. Abundant evidence of its truth is to be found in the deplorable degrada- * MfT« t« pumas. tion of metaphysical science which followed its removal from the grasp of natural philosophers, and its amalgamation with scholastic divinity.

The various successive theories which have flourished since the revival of learning, to ex plain the phenomena of mind, and to serve as standards for judging of moral codes, have, in their speedydeclension and rapid neglect, borne ample testimony to the errors of those methods on which they have been founded. It is alone, as a branch of the natural history of man, that these subjects can be successfully treated: and the rapid and imposing march of mind, under this new direction, leads to the most flattering anticipations of future success. Good and evil are principles intelligible only as they re late to the laws of organic existence. Crimi nality in morals, like unwholesomeness in me dicine, bears immediately upon an interference with the healthy discharge of function, either in the individual or in society ; and the adoption of any other criterion for judging of actions, leads immediately to false conclusions and to fatal and destructive prejudices.* With this clue for a guide, it would have been impossible * Hoc autem, de quo agimus, id ipsum est, quod utile ap pellatur; in quo lapsa consuetudo deflexit devid; sensimqueeo deducta est, ut honestatem ab utilitate secernens, et consti tuent honestuni esse aliquid quod utile non esset, et utile for interested imposture to have substituted absurd ceremonial practices and injurious pri vations for active benevolence and rational en joyment; still less, to have arrayed one half of the world in hatred and in warfare against the other ; and to have preached massacre and ra pine in the name of the Most High.

This truth fully developed, the temptation to crime would be materially diminished ; except in as far as the imperfection of institutes might render the existence of some individuals incompatible with that of others ; an incompatibility, which, when it becomes extensive, leads necessarily and irresistibly to the dissolution of the social bond, and to a remodelling of society. The possession of a canon, it is true, does not al ways imply its proper application. Strong passions and vehement desires must, under every system, lead inevitably to false concep tions concerning the tendency of actions ; but if an agreement with the physical necessities of our nature were made the criterions of moral axiom and legislative enactment, aberrations respecting whole classes of actions could scarcely take place; and individual instances of miscalquod non honestum; qua nulla pernicies major hominum vitee potuit afferri, — Cicero de OJiciis. culation would be less frequent, less extensive, and less fatal.

But not to dwell upon speculative and theoretic views, the practical evils which flow from an ignorance of the organisation of the human animal, irresistibly invite to a more diffused acquaintance with the elements of physiology. False notions of the effects of natural agents hurry the body into disease; and the absence of correct ideas on disease places the patient out of all mental relation with the person on whom he trusts for cure. On this subject errors of the most opposite charac ter prevail. Among the great majority the ad miration for physic is idolatrous. The favorite oracles of the day are consulted and obeyed with a blindness and credulity truly supersti tious. On the other hand a few esprits softs treat the art with unmerited contempt, and know not " de plus plaisante momerie, rien de plus ridicule, qu'un homme qui se veut melcr d'en guerir un autre."* This, indeed, cannot fail to be the case on a subject, concerning which riothing positive is known.

To the lower classes a physician is a thaumaturge, a natural magician ; the very terms of whose art sound like spells and exor cisms ; and even among the more educated, * Moliere. when their medical advisers "savent de fort belles humanites, savent nommer en Grec toutes les maladies, pour ce qui est de lesguerir," the patient takes it implicitly on trust. But with these opposite notions of the pro fessor, both classes entertain the same ideas ot the art. Both regard the nomenclature of noso logy as representing substantive existences, per manent and distinct in their characters, as au horse, a cow, or a dog. Both likewise consider remedies as specifically appropriate to diseases ; the one being formed for the other, as a mortise for a tenon ; and operating upon it, as water quenches fire. Under these impressions, the great desideratum in sickness is to find a name for the malady ; and the failure of the physician is imagined to depend exclusively upon an error in this particular : for the disease being discovered there cannot arise, upon this hypothesis, a difficulty in applying the appropriate remedy ; which in all cases should act infallibly, and that too without even co-operation on the part of the patient.

With this notion that the temporary application of some wonder-working drug, which is vaunted as " good for such and such a disease," will supersede all necessity for regu lating those stimuli which are daily impressed upon the body, exercise and temperance are for gotten or neglected ; and, as habitual sins are supposed to be expiated by mortification and prayer at particular seasons, or by an occasional alms-giving, placed on the credit side of the ac count with heaven ; so health is conceived to be conciliable with great and constant excess, by the cheap intercalation of a temporary submis sion to the prescriptions of the physician, and a few pounds spent annually with the apothecary. The disappointment of these extravagant ex pectations has principally perhaps contributed to induce that total contempt, with which many close thinkers regard the practice of physic ; while in feebler spirits, whose hopes are too chimerical to admit of argument, or to yield to conviction, they give rise to the opposite ex tremeof huntingreceipts,andofswallowing what ever is offered, as being nauseous and revolting.

Absolute certainty is in medicine a manifest impossibility. It can rarely exist, except in respect to those simple relations, which can be expressed by numbers. Even the evidence of the senses requires in many cases to be adjusted by other tests. Each individual sees and hears for himself; and every man has his own convic tions, which mayor may not quadrate with the nature of things; according to Home Tooke's beautiful explanation of truth, that it is what each person " troweth." Truth indeed must necessarily be, with respect to the human animal, an agreement with appearances ; for the intimate nature of things (or absolute and metaphysical truth,) can only abide with that Being from whom nothing is hidden. In the several natural sciences, in which so much remains, and perhaps ever will remain, undiscovered, an approximation to certainty can only be attained with respect to general propositions ; their application to particular cases must almost universally be attended with unforeseen circumstances, which will affect the individual instance, and confer upon it something of peculiarity.

The phenomena of disease are made up in part of the habitual functions of the organs, and in part of perturbations produced by accidental violences. In the infinite repetition of such combinations, the ratio of the perturbing forces to those which are constant, becomes in many cases discoverable. Fromobservationsthusmade, axioms may be formed, which may be applied with more or less accuracy to each particular case ; but they can alone be absolutely predicated, as the average result of very many in stances.* * Au milieu des causes variables et inconnues, que nous coraprenons sous le nom de hazard, et qui rendent incertaine et irreguliere la marche des 6venemens, on voit naitreamesure Those, who are accustomed to the contempla tion of nature, are aware of the difficulty which attends the classification of animals and plants; whose properties are constant and permanently distinct, from generation to generation.

This difficulty is rendered materially more embarrass ing, when the phenomena of disease are made the subjects of arrangement. — In their nature essentially accidental, the symptoms, which charac terize a malady, not only vary in every case, but in every stage of the same complaint. Fugitive and evanescent, they arise, combine in various degrees and modifications, and again subside in the progress of the disease, with a caprice to which the key is but seldom discoverable. The art of medicine therefore, though taught in qu'ils se multiplient, une regularity frappante, qui semble tenir a un dessein, et que Ton a consid£ re comnie un preuve de la providence, qui gouverne le monde. Mais en y refle chissant, on leconnoit bientftt, que cette regularity n'est que le developpement des possibility respectives des eveuemens simples, qui doivent se presenter plus souvent, Iorsqu' its sont plus probables .

On peut tirer du theorem precedent cette consequence, qui doit etre regardee comnie une loi g£n£rale, savoir que les rapports des elTets de la nature, sont a fort peu pres, constans, quand ces essets sont considered en grand nombre. Ainsi malgre' la varilte des anneea, la somme des productions pendant un nombre d'annees considerable est sensiblement la meme. La Place, Essai sur Us Probabilites. generals, is practised in particulars ; and success must vary, not only according to the acquire ments, but also to the natural talent of every practitioner. Another notion, connected with this subject, which appears highly chimerical is, that every disease has its appropriate remedy in nature, if the physician had the ability to discover it. In the practice of surgery, if such a violence has been done to an essential organ as utterly un fits it for its functions, the incurable nature of the accident is readily admitted.

In physic such cases perpetually occur, but they are not considered in the same point of view ; every in ternal malady being deemed, in its own nature, curable, provided the art were pushed to its utmost perfection. — The revolutions, which take place from time to time in the phonomena of disease, are very unfavourable to this sup position. New maladies are daily arising, and old forms of complaint disappear, as the pro gress of society changes the applications, which are habitually made to the living solids, or as the constitution becomes accustomed to those which are more permanent. The use, or the abuse, of certain remedies in like manner in troduces accidental combinations of disease, formerly unknown. — Amidst these various changes, it would be absurd to imagine that counter agents exist in the storehouse of nature, adapted to every case, and equal to every emergency.

But to return from this digression. — The practical disadvantages of ignorance in matters of health are not merely confined to what respects the professional practice of medicine. Fatal errors are committed in common life, by attributing effects to wrong causes ; and much personal inconvenience results from false notions of the tendency of habits, which are adopted for the preservation of health, and are tolerated for salutary effects they do not produce. On the other hand, dangerous and destructive habits are continued from unfounded ideas of security derived from supposed counter agents, which have no real efficacy. — In one word, if igno rance be imbecillity, privation, and suffering, its effects are never more immediate and in timate than when it respects the management of health, and the accidents and affections of the human body.