Sketches on animal life : an inaugural essay, submitted to the consideration of the Honourable Robert Smith, provost ; and of the regents of the University of Maryland / by John Cromwell, of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, member of the Baltimore Medical Society.

  • Cromwell, John, 1794-
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketches on animal life : an inaugural essay, submitted to the consideration of the Honourable Robert Smith, provost ; and of the regents of the University of Maryland / by John Cromwell, of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, member of the Baltimore Medical Society. 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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    would have dictated a silence, which, though it cannot of- fer distinction, affords security. In concluding the performance of this task, I enter- tain no flattering presumption, that I have proposed any view of the subject it embraces, calculated to confer cele- brity upon myself, or to contribute in any degree, to the improvement or gratification of others. My work will live for a day, and be forgotten with the occasion which gave it birth : should it prove not unworthy of even this ephemeral existence, my most earnest expectations will be gratified; I am far from confident that it merits any thing more. The inquiry will perhaps not be made, how far I can justly arrogate a claim to originality in the sentiments ad- duced, in the following pages : but were that inquiry pro- posed, candour would compel me to acknowledge, that the sentiments were mine by adoption, that my limited stock of knowledge, like that of mankind in general, was more the result of observation, than invention ; I cheerfully ac- knowledge my obligations to the researches of respecta- ble writers, and the opinions of intelligent lecturers. Strict originality is seldom attainable, and is not essential to uti- lity ; I believe in common understanding, it has no dis- tinct signification, and if it were indispensable in the dis- cussions of science, I fear but few could be engaged in the pursuit. In reviewing the history of man's social im- provement, we cannot avoid an observance of the intimate connexion each succeeding age has preserved with the circumstances which characterised the condition of its predecessor. It is true, that the knowledge which the for- mer had but just entered upon, the latter has frequently extended, though rarely perfected. New generations have profited by the partial attainments of those who had pas- sed awav, sometimes even by their errours 5 and intellec-