Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 14th of February, 1834 (IA b31879792).pdf/9

 organisation under all the modifications impressed on it by surrounding influences of all kinds, and studies the nature and mode of action of those in- fluences; drawing from these sources the rules for preserving health and removing or palliating dis- ease. The practical application of these rules constitutes the art of medicine, sometimes called the art of healing, but more properly the art of treating diseases; while the assemblage of facts and reasonings, on which the practical proceedings are grounded, is the science of medicine.

When we consider that the human body is com- posed of numerous separate parts, that these exe- cute distinct offices, and that they are variously acted upon by external agencies and internal causes, we might be inclined to suppose that any of them might be studied separately; that we might learn the nature and treatment of one or of some few organs, without attending to the rest. A little further reflection will convince us that the knowledge thus gained would be very imperfect. The numerous individual organs which make up the human body, although various in structure and office, are all intimately connected, and mutually dependent. They are merely subordinate parts of one machine; and they all concur, each in its own way, in producing one general result, the life of the individual. All the leading arrangements are calculated to give a character of unity to the organisation and living actions of our frame. There