Page:Hunterian oration, delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons in London on February 14th 1829 (electronic resource) (IA b2148305x).pdf/32

28 to be acquired; those powers with which the philosophy of the mind arms the enquirer, can alone lay open the truths of science.

he great man, who is justly entitled the father of medicine, presents by his writings a proof, that it is not the extent of information, but the exercise of the higher faculties of the intellect upon subjects submitted to them, that gives lasting value to the labours of man. He, probably, was not the discoverer of all that is left in his name, but he assuredly was more than a compiler. In spite of the imperfect anatomy in his time, and the monstrous forms which imagination gave to facts, we recognize in Hippocrates a great mind. He has left observations which, on account of their truth and utility, we must both cherish and venerate.

The true application to anatomical pursuits commenced at the period when the powers of the mind developed themselves