Excerpt from An Oration Delivered Before the Philadelphia Medical Society, Pursuant to Appointment Were not the subject I have selected for your particular cousi deration, by itself of sufficient extent and importance, to occupy our time, it would not be uninteresting to point out in detail the causes that have been most effective in this comparatively slow ad vance of medicine. Restricted as we'are, a few cursory remarks only can, therefore, be offered on this subject, for the more perfect elucidation of those which are to follow. Of all those causes, the only one to which it will be necessary to allude in this place, is the fondness which the members of our profession have usually dis played for theory and hypothesis; a fondness which, from the days of Pliny, Lesage, and Moliere, has been ridiculed by every writer who has made medicine or its cultivators the subject Of his mirth; and indeed, on an impartial examination of the question, and on a careful study of medical writings, from the age of Hippocrates down to the present time, we shall find sufficient and convincing proofs that to this propensity to speculation, may fairly be ascribed no inconsiderable share of detriment to the improvement of the science. Yet in defence of the members of our profession it may, I believe, be affirmed, that this disposition appears to be inherent in the human mind, and has in general been displayed to greater ex tent ia proportion to the obscurity in which the subject investi gated was involved - men theorizing most on the subjects they least comprehend. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.