revent
the food from undergoing perhaps both a vinous and acetous
fermentation, and where, in consequence of the disengagement of gas
and the formation of acid, the most excruciating pains were felt, the
most dreadful sickness experienced, and all the symptoms of
indigestion present in the most aggravated state; after almost every
article in the materia medica, generally employed, had been tried
without success, I have cured the patient merely by prohibiting food
subject to fermentation, such as vegetables, and enjoining a strict
use of animal food alone.

In short, wherever the cause of a disease can be ascertained, the
grand and simple secret in the cure, is the careful removal of that
cause.

LECTURE V.
OF THE SENSES IN GENERAL.

In this lecture, I propose to take a view of the connexion of man
with the external world, and shall endeavour to point out the manner
in which he becomes acquainted with external objects, by means of the
faculties called senses.

A human creature is an animal endowed with understanding, and reason;
a being composed of an organized body, and a rational mind.

With respect to his body, he is pretty similar to other animals,
having similar organs, powers, and wants. All animals have a body
composed of several parts, and, though these may differ from the
structure of the human body in some circumstances, to accommodate it
to peculiar habits and wants of the animal, still there is a great
similarity in the general structure.

The human body is feeble at its commencement, increases gradually in
its progress by the help of nourishment and exercise, till it arrives
at a certain period, when it appears in full vigour; from this time
it insensibly declines to old age, which conducts it at length to
dissolution. This is the ordinary course of human life, unless it
happens to be abridged either by disease or accident.

With regard to his reasoning faculties, or mind, man is eminently
distinguished from other animals. It is by this noble part that he
thinks, and is capable of forming just ideas of the different objects
that surround him: of comparing them together; of inferring from
known principles unknown truths; of passing a solid judgment on the
mutual agreement of things, as well as on the relations they bear to
him; of deliberating on what is proper or improper to be done; and of
determining how to act. The mind recollects what is past, joins it
with the present, and extends its views t