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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    PREFACE. ii» from Wrong, and salutary from noxious things. It was not ne- cessary that men who kept off disease by this simple mode of living, should unravel the Problems of Medicine; for although ignorant of this science, they enjoyed a life untainted and un- contracted by Maladies. And when grey hairs approached, they despised not an old age so conspicuous for Virtue; but welcomed it with the highest honours and religious veneration until having filled up the measure of their lives in placid indus- try, they, without fear departed to their Heavenly Rest. But when the world became foolish and degenerate, Idleness crept in, and the accursed love of Gold led mankind captive. All morals were perverted, Sons refused to follow the footsteps of their Fathers, they vied one with another in splendour, wealth and family distinction, and began to' devise base things, not blushing to change black into white. Ever panting after hap- piness, they betook themselves to sumptuous Edifices, decor- ated their bodies with softest raiment, Gold and Purple, exhi- bited to the wondering crowd, Feasts of exquisite dainties, tortur- ed with every variety of cookery; in short, exhausted by every species of luxury and gluttony, every vice followed close at their heels, the practice of which in a short time obliterated shame, and all things gradually went to decay and ruin. It is no marvel, if as this destruction advanced, all the laws of the Animal ^Economy should have been perverted, and a griev- ous host of diseases should afflict these madmen, who notwith- standing yielded very reluctant submission to these calamities. Even then however they might have provided for their restora- tion, had they profited by this chastisement, and settled their fluctuating minds by the precepts of wisdom: but, borne away by their own lusts, they thought little about investigating the cause of their misery, although conscious of their licentious man- ner of life, and made no exertion to avert these fell distempers, but only to mollify or remove them by chance remedies, or such as were at hand, the good or bad effects of which they noted. So that from their observations, collected and arranged, might have sprung that primitive and rude art of healing, which in its infancy dwelt in Egypt, from whence it migrated into Greece, and of which no learned man is ignorant. Among the Greeks, the first who collected the scattered Theo- ries of Diseases (assisted perhaps by the writings of Asclepi- ades) and reduced them into a System when culled from the Vo- tive Tables in the Temple of iEsculapius, was HIPPOCRA- TES, whose writings are truly precious, although they have much dross and impurity mixed with them, unless as some con- jecture, his legitimate works have been contaminated by spuri-