Proposals for publishing by subscription, the first part of the Synopsis of the universal practice of medicine : exhibiting a concise view of all diseases / ... By Joseph Lieutaud ... Now first translated from the Latin, by Edward A. Atlee.

  • Lieutaud, Joseph, 1703-1780.
Date:
[1816]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proposals for publishing by subscription, the first part of the Synopsis of the universal practice of medicine : exhibiting a concise view of all diseases / ... By Joseph Lieutaud ... Now first translated from the Latin, by Edward A. Atlee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    EXTRACT FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THE mind is astonished when viewing the miserable condi-' tion of mankind, ignorant of their future destiny, catching with cries, the first breath of life, and yielding it in a short time to inevitable Fate. Nor do the poor sufferers spend even this short span of existence in peace, but are wearied with number- less afflictions, among which the formidable Phalanx of Dis- eases lifts its dire head. Some through stress of gloomy care, and influenced as it were, by an unlucky planet, have laid guilty hands upon themselves. Hence it is little to be wondered at that some licentious ones, tainted with an impertinent Itch for Scribbling, should through impatience and fickleness of mind rashly bring upon themselves the misfortunes with which they are borne down, and which they impiously charge upon the Su- preme Author of Good. Those, however, who excel in virtue, and are better acquainted with Nature, have on all hands refut- ed these cavillers, and more rationally concluded that adversi- ties are owing to the wickedness of mankind, who would never have suffered them, had they not deviated from the simple man- ner of life of their progenitors. When man was yet rude and uncultured, in the new Earth and under the recently formed Heaven, and the uncorrupted fruits of the Ground were his food: when lowly Tents were the habitations of Flocks and their Lords in common; when the chaste wife not more polished than her husband feasting on nuts, made up her ill-contrived covering of skins, and strewed her rustic couch with leaves; when as cultivators of paternal Fields and keepers of Flocks, they indulged in moderate labour and grew old in unimpaired vigor: Then were they governed by the Law of Nature, and were not anxious, so long as Truth flour- ished, to solve the perplexities of human Laws. Little solicit- ous about the origin and causes of things, so sedulously traced by their descendants, they followed the Philosophy of Nature, by which lUey discovered Effects, and used to discern Right