Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/10

6 tools for the purpose, and neglect to learn its mechanism, by which alone he can be able to discover the causes of the error, or stoppage of its different movements, and consequently what is wanting to be done, to render it again perfect or useful. Yet equally absurd would be the conduct of medical men, were they to study botany, pharmacy, chemistry, and natural philosophy, searching indeed through all the paths of nature, and the stores of art, for means of cure, and yet neglect anatomy, by which alone they can be able to distinguish the nature of the difference between health and disease, and consequently what is requisite to reconvert the latter into the former; which is the only circumstance that can render medicine a science.

It seems to be my fate, Gentlemen, whenever I address you, to be doomed to speak Of the importance of opinions; yet I cannot avoid it, the necessity of the case absolutely demands it; for the reasoning powers of man, which, when well directed, lead to the discovery of truth, and the formation of useful opinions, when misemployed, elicit