mist and
uncertainty in which it had continued from the time of Hippocrates.

* * * * *

The workings of his mind, and the character of the man, at this time
will be best understood by a quotation from the letter he wrote to
Hufeland, where he says:

"Having briefly reviewed, the sad experience of the systems
of Sydenham and Hoffmann, of Boerhave and Glaubius, of Stahl,
Cullen and de Hean," he continues,

"But it is, perhaps, the very nature of this art, as great men
have asserted that it is incapable of attaining any greater
certainty. Shameful, blasphemous thought! What! shall it be
said that the infinite wisdom of the Eternal Spirit, that
animates the universe, could not produce remedies to allay the
sufferings of the diseases He allows to arise? The all-loving
paternal goodness of Him, whom no name worthily designates,
who richly supplies all wants, even the scarcely conceivable
wants of the insect in the dust, imperceptible by reason of
its minuteness to the keenest human eye, and who despenses
throughout creation, life and happiness in rich abundance,
shall it be said that He is capable of the tyranny of not
permitting that man, made in his image, should by the efforts
of his penetrating mind, that has been breathed into him from
above, find out the way to discover remedies in the stupendous
kingdom of creation, which should be able to deliver mankind
from their sufferings, worse than death itself? Shall He, the
Father of all, behold with indifference the martyrdom of
his best-beloved creatures by disease, and yet render it
impossible to the genius of man, to whom all else is possible,
to find any method, any easy, sure, trust-worthy method,
whereby they may see diseases from their proper point of view,
and whereby they may interrogate medicines as to their special
uses, as to what they are really, surely and positively
serviceable for? Well, thought I, as there must be a sure and
trust-worthy method of treatment, as certainly as God is the
wisest and most beneficient of Beings, I shall seek it no
longer in the thorny thicket of ontological explanations,...
nor in the authoritative declarations of celebrated men. No;
let me seek it where it lies nearest at hand, and where it
has hitherto been passed over by all, because it did not seem
su