life
which brought it on; and this being complied with, we might venture
to predict, with as much certainty in the one case as in the other,
that he would in future escape it.

What I have frequently endeavoured to inculcate in the course of
these lectures, always appears to me of the utmost importance: I
mean, the general diffusion of physiological knowledge, or a
knowledge of the human frame; this knowledge ought to form a part of
general education, and is, in my opinion, as necessary for a person
to learn as writing, or accounts, or any other branch of education;
for if it is necessary that a young man should learn these, that he
may be able to take care of his affairs, it surely can be no less
necessary, that he should learn to take care of his health; for to
enjoy good health, as a celebrated practical philosopher observes, is
better than to command the world.

If knowledge of this kind were generally diffused, people would cease
to imagine that the human constitution was so badly contrived, that a
state of general health could be overset by every trifle; for
instance, by a little cold; or that the recovery of it lay concealed
in a few drops, or a pill. Did they better understand the nature of
chronic diseases, and the causes which produce them, they could not
be so unreasonable as to think, that they might live as they chose
with impunity; or did they know any thing of medicine, they would
soon be convinced, that though fits of pain have been relieved, and
sickness cured, for a time, the reestablishment of health depends on
very different powers and principles. Those who are acquainted with
the nature and functions of the living body, well know, that health
is not to be established by drugs; but that if it can be restored, it
must be by nicely adjusting the action of the exciting powers to the
state of the constitution, and the excitability; and thus gently and
gradually calling forth the powers of the body to act for themselves.
And though I believe that most general diseases will admit of a cure,
yet I am confident, that no invalid was ever made a healthy man by
the mere power of drugs. If this is a truth, should it not be
universally known? If it were, there would undoubtedly be an end of
quackery, for all quack medicines, from the balm of Gilead, to the
botanical syrup, are supposed to cure diseases, or at least asserted
to do so, in this mysterious manner.

Dr. Cullen, in his Nosology, gives us the follo