Page:A Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America - John Morgan.djvu/24

 intricate structure of the animal frame, the work of God, than to learn the construction of any machine, as a watch or clock, the work of human invention? Or are the springs and movements of the former, so divinely adjusted, more easily managed and put to rights when in disorder, than the wheels of the latter? or does the preservation of this in a sound state require less study, knowledge, and conduct?

The human body is certainly one of the most compound machines in nature. Medicine is one of the noblest and most difficult of arts, made up of a number of sciences different from each other. The practice of physic requires deliberation, reasoning, judgement, and experience. Surgery calls for different powers and qualifications rarely uniting in one man. Are these then all to be blended with the apothecary, the botanist, and chymist, which ought to be, and are each of them separate and distinct in their very nature? Whilst we labour amidst such a variety of pursuits, all improvement must be at a stand. Whereas, let each cultivate his respective branch apart, the physician, surgeon, apothecary &c. the knowledge of medicine will be then daily improved, and it may be practiced with greater accuracy and skill as well as a less expence.

Prejudice may here ask, how can a physician practice with advantage, if he does not equally