An introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic : containing observations on the inductive system of prosecuting medical inquiries, and a tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush, delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on the third of November, 1813 / by David Hosack.

Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic : containing observations on the inductive system of prosecuting medical inquiries, and a tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush, delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on the third of November, 1813 / by David Hosack. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    16/38 (page 16)
    state : the action of every external agent no less attracted his observant eye. The air he breathed, the water he drank, the earth he trod upon, alike became the subjects of his at- tention, as far as they were supposed to exert an influence upon our system.* Nor were these the limits of his observa- tion : The movements of the heavenly bodies; their influ- ence upon our planet and upon our frame, were also embra- ced in his extended view.f From data such as these, and from a long and extensive experience, he founded and built up a system of pure and rational philosophy. As the great object of all his labours was to arrive at truth, and as Bacon discarded the logical definitions and distinctions of Aristotle, so did Hippocrates reject the principal hypothesis of Py- thagoras and the other mysterious dogmata of the sophists of his age. Governed by the true spirit of what has lately re- ceived the appellation of Newtonian philosophy, he admit- ted so much only as enabled him to reason more justly in investigating the causes, and in discovering the method of cure in diseases. As the philosophy of Bacon differed from the fashionable logic, or syllogistic form of demonstration, which, until his time, was almost universally received; equally great was the difference between the method of Hip- pocrates and that of his predecessors. But while we offer the tribute due to this great philosopher and physician, it is not to be denied that his knowledge of the internal structure of the human frame was necessardy hnute , . Hirpor. a. Mork. Epid^Lik. C.3, J«. «* ^ f vide Lib. citat. et in aphormra. beet. 3, 4.