Excerpt from The Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, Vol. 1 of 3: Containing the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints, And the Heart and Arteries, And the Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain and Nerves, the Organs of the Senses, and the Viscera

Of all the lessons which a young man entering upon our profession needs to learn, this is, perhaps, the first, - that he should resist the fascinations of doctrines and hypotheses, till he have won the privilege Of such stu dies by honest labour, and a faithful pursuit of real and useful knowledge. Of this knowledge, anatomy surely forms the greatest share. - Anatomy, even while it is neglected, is universally acknowledged to be the very basis of all' medical skill. - It is by anatomy that the physician guesses at the seat, or causes, or consequences, Of any internal disease: without anatomy, the surgeon could not move one step in his great operations: and those theories could not even be conceived, which so Often usurp the place of that very science, from which they should ¿ow as probabilities and conjectures only, drawn from its store of facts.

A consciousness of the high value of anatomical knowledge never entirely leaves the mind of the student. He begins with a strong conviction that this is the great study, and with an ardent desire to master all its difficulties: if he relaxes in the pursuit, it is from the difficulties of the task, and the seduction of theories too little dependent on anatomy, and too easily accessible without its help. His desire for real knowledge revives, only when the Opportunity is lost, when he is to leave the schools Of medicine when he is to give an account Of his studies, with an anxious and oppressed mind, con scious of his ignorance in that branch which is to be received as the Chief test of his professional skill, or when, perhaps, he feels a more serious and manly 1m pression, the difficulty and importance of that art which he is called to practice.

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.