mate genius of Aristotle been free to explore the penetralia of the human structure, and directed to the ceconomy of man’s organization in comparison with that of animals, it is scarcely probable that he would have anticipated Harvey or Asellius; since, (so gradual is the march of truth,) the principal facts which form the bases of their grand discoveries lay sterile in the hands of the original observers[1].
The surgery of the ancients was purely mechanical, suggested by such crude observations of the phaenomena of local injuries and diseases as persons ignorant of anatomy might find opportunity for making. This polar star, by which alone their course could be directed, was to them "dark and silent.” But there were doubtless then, as now, minds of various orders employed in penetrating the mists by which they were enveloped. Some ardent and adventurous spirits, by whatever impulses directed, assuming the hazardous office of pioneers in the field of discovery, would either win the confidence or impose upon the credulity of their companions; or, by a glaring exposure of their errors, open a way for the advancement of more cautious and contemplative observers. And so true a picture is this of the progress of knowledge, even in our days of maturer science, that it would ill become us to weigh with a scrupulous rigour the contributions, or to judge harshly of the fallacies, of those who in
- ↑ Appendix, Note A.
