Excerpt from Ten Introductory Lectures: Delivered at the Opening of the University of London; Session 1828-9 Throughout all these deviations and caprices, a more intimate acquaintance th the structure and functions of the body was promoted, and the effects of medicines he came better understood. The pride of originality, the zeal of theory, the very fanaticism of hypothesis, stimulated the cultivators of medicine to greater exertions: the er rors of one sect served as lessons to another; and the con tentions of opposing parties often laid open the sources of truth. At last, after repeated efforts to reduce the illimitable varieties of the human (economy to the rules by which other parts of nature were governed; after many attempts to apply elementary, chemical, mathematical, mechanical, humoral, and other doctrines to the hving body; physicians have become convinced, that in the functions of life, there is something more than mere elementary mixture; some thmg more than a mere collection of vascular agents; of solids and fluids, and moving powers; and that, although to a certain extent the laws of many sciences are to be found no force within the bodily fabric, there are vital se uons and laws of life Independent of, and superior to them. 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.