Excerpt from The History of Medicine, Vol. 1: Comprising a Narrative of Its Progress From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time, and of the Delusions Incidental to Its Advance From Empiricism to the Dignity of a Science The purpose of the following pages is to consider the past history, the present state, and the future prospects of the Medical Profession. To record the names and preserve the memory of those whose great achievements have conferred benefit and lustre on their fellow-men, has in all ages been re garded as a duty, and felt as a gratification to wise and reflecting men but whilst endeavouring to relate the principal events which have contributed to make the medical profession what it now is a high and noble calling - it will also be necessary to speak of the prevailing delusions which have been, and still are, practised by the unprincipled, to tempt the unwise and unwary, making largeness of promise a profitable trade, and sinking the profession in name, though not in deed, to a base and degrading craft. 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.