The Principles of Treatment

as a rule they cannot give a rational account of the principles on which they have planned it; they fail to do justice to the immense amount of sound knowledge which they have laborious]}7 acquired, and too often the}7 resign themselves to the observance of some routine system of treatment which they have read up; for, however unwilling we may be to confess it, simple authority is still very largely the guide in medical practice. The present work starts by assuming no theurapeutical laws, but proceeds to find them in the familiar facts of semiology, patholo gical anatomy, and the clinical characters of disease. These are carefully examined for the elementary principles of treatment; and in the