Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/36

32 and throw the whole profession into confusion. So much, also, is to be known and done in either department, that if we invade each other’s province, we must neglect properly to cultivate and improve our own.

There are those who think that a still further subdivision of the subjects of medicine might lead to a more perfect knowledge of them. Yet the ultimate structure of all parts of the body being the same, their diseases must be similar, and treated upon the same general principles. If also, to investigate and understand any subject in nature, art, or science, a great deal of collateral knowledge be required, which serves like light shining from various points, to illuminate the object of our attention; when we examine particular diseases by the lights emanating from others, here such lights will indeed be found to be most apposite and illustrative. It is by comparing the nature and treatment of diseases with one another, that we improve our knowledge and practice with respect to those of particular organs, or