But, if Abernethy's views are so true or so excellent as we allege that they are, they must have _some_ relation to anything that is good in every kind of medical or surgical treatment; and this equally, whatever the system (so called) whence it may arise, however much of truth or error it may contain, or however perplexingly these qualities may be blended together. These are points on which we have yet something to say; and as we are anxious that the public and the profession should favour us with their attention to the very few remarks we have the space to offer, we must have a new chapter. [Footnote 82: See "Medicine and Surgery One Inductive Science." 1838.] [Footnote 83: A contemporary of the Hospital, of whom, as a practical surgeon, Mr. Abernethy expressed a very high opinion. Until the matter was explained, Mr. Vincent's son was afraid that something "sneerlike" was intended in this passage; and we were glad of an opportunity of correcting that impression. Nothing could be farther from the intention than anything of the kind in regard to either. But it seemed to us an infelicitous result of the Governors probably having no better rule for the disposition of their portraits than that which some of us are obliged to observe in the shelves for our books—we mean the rule which has twelve inches to the foot.] CHAPTER XXXII. "Quæ res neque consilium neque modum habet ullum Eam consilio regere non potes." TER. Eun. Act i, Sc. i. "Master, the thing which hath not in itself Or measure or advice—advice can't rule." COLMAN. POSITION, PROGRESS, AND PROSPECTS OF THE PROFESSION—OF HYDROPATHY—OF HOMŒOPATHY—OF QUACKERY—OF PUBLIC IGNORANCE. A writer[84], of no ordinary judgment and discrimination, has observed, that "it often happens in human affairs that the evil and the remedy grow up at the same time: the remedy unnoticed, and at a distance scarcely visible perhaps above the earth; whilst the evil may shoot rapidly into strength, and alone catch the eye of the observer by the immensity of its shadow; and yet," he adds, "a future age may be able to mark how the one declined and the other advanced, and how returning spring seemed no longer to renew the honours of the one, while it summoned into maturity and progress the perfection of the other." We know not how it may appear to the reader, but we cannot help thinking that, in the foregoing sentence, there is a far-seeing perception of a very leading character in human affairs. There is no evil but which is charged with a certain degree of good. At first, it is indeed "scarcely visible"—nay, it escapes alike the most penetrative perception and faithful confidence, in the surpassing working-to-good of all things around us; but so soon as the evil begins to tell—so soon as the full flood of mischief becomes obtrusive or remarkable,—the small ripple of some corrective principle rises into view.