The Sun.
London, England, 1817-10-01 00:00:00

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

As it is our wish to render this Paper the vehicle
of useful` and ornamental knowledg-ei as well ao of
those principles which are best caktilated to sup-
port
,our political Constitution, we shall readily
give insertion to whatever may tend to promote
those important objects. Health is one of the
most desirable possesion3 in human life, and
consequently whatever may tend to preserve it
must be highly interesting to the community at
large. We therefore deem it our duty to submit
to the public the following brief sketch of an
Introductory Lecture delivered by Mr. Goon, on
Wednesday last, in the great room, at the Crown
and Has, in Chancery-lane. Mr. Goon is so well
known by his vatiouS and valuable works in lite-
rature, as well as in the profession of which he is
so cOn.spicunUs and so respectable a member, that
it would be a sort of presumption in us to offer
at present the hamble tribute of our commenda-
tion.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
To 'a Course of Lectures on the Study and Science of
NosoLoGY

This gentleman has lately published a " Phy-
siological System of Nosology, with a corrected
and simplified Nomenclature," which seems to
'have acquired no small degree of reputation in
the medical world, partly from the absolute want
of a proper system of the kind.; partly from the
manner in which it has been countenanced by the
Royal College of Physicians of London, to whom
it is dedicated by their own especial permission,
given ara Comitio Majorutn; but perhaps chiefly
by the merits.ot the work itself. -And in conse-
quence of this SHCCeSs the anchor has just attempt-
ed to establish a new School of Medicine in this
Metropolis, by a Course crf Lectures upon the
above subject, his own system being professedly
to form the ground-work of the new series of in-
struction.

The object of the Introductory Lecture, which
was thronged' by a vet y numerous audience of
professional and literary characters, atno►ng whom
were many of the heads of the two Royd Colleges
of Physicians and Surgeons of this Metropolis,
and which was designed to she w in whet respect
tl►e present mode of Medical education adopted in
other places, as well as in this Metropolis, seemed
to demand improvement, and to give a brief out-
line of the plan to be laid down in the proposed
course of lectures, for accomplishing so import-
ant a purpose.

• .
GooD observed, that every science may be
resolved into three primordial divisions—its sub-
ject, its literature, and its language : that each of
these demands an equal degree of attention ; and
that the student who does not apply himself to
each of them, as well critically and analytically,
as relatively and collectively, whatever degree of
information he may chance to pick up from other
quarters, can never become a proficient in the
science of his pursuit.
lle explained these divisions as follows :—The
subject of a science is its ground-work, and in
that of Medicine consists of the long and melan-
choly catalogue of diseases incident to human
nature. The literature of a science consists of the
laws and maximt►s, the doctrines and deductions,
the systems and opinions which regulate it from
age to age, as laid down by authorities of the
highest -gravity and reputation. And the language
of a science is its connecting medium,' its brie of
communication, that which• gives unity to the
whole, and separates one branch of human know-
ledge from another. If the subject matter of a
science may be contemplated as its skeleton and
fundamental structure, the literature of a science
is its form and body, and the language of a science
its vital current—the blood that feeds, and the
spirit that animates and gives it a peculiar corn-
plexion and character.

He applied each of these divisions to the sub-
ject in question. He proved distinctly, and from
the comession of the best Lecturers on the science:
of Medicine, that there is not a single method in
present use but is loaded with defects, and is
altogether unscientific; that the common system
is Dr. Cullen's, which is so extremely deficient,
as, in the opinion of Dr. Cullen himself, to have
no fit place for a considerable number of well-
known diseases, which are consequently obliged to
be excluded from the system : and that every Lec-
turer feels himself compelled to acknowledge its
Onmerous deficiencies in his very outset, and to
apologize for his use of this system, by confessing
at the same time, that, faulty as it is, he is not
acquainted with a better.

Mr. GOOD next pointed out a variety of other
imperfections in the ordinary mode of conducting
the groundwork of medical instruction ; and then
proceeded to a summary, but lucid display of his
own system, and the means by which he propos-
ed, in lecturing upon it, to save both time and
labour to the student, and to render the progress
of instruction far clearer and easier of compre-
hension ;.„upon which we have not time to en-
large, further than to observe that
In entdring. upon the second division of his
snbject, he stated that he was peculiarly anxious
upon the last point, because it was his intention
to appropriate the time and labour thus saved and
snatched, so to speak, from the family tomb of
the Capulets, to an ampler, instruction upon the
next primordial division of a science, the general
literature that belongs to it, and he pointed out
very neatly the means by which the history of
medicine and the treatment of diseases may he
most usefully illustrated by the application of the
learning of former times, and the, valuable disco-
veries'of our own.

He then proceeded to his third division, and
showed that almost every science has a vocabu-
lary of its own ; and that, generally speaking, in
proportion as the terms of such vocabulary are
precise and, definite the science itself becomes
exact and valuable. That hence there are few
sciences which have not, of late years, been par-
ticularly attentive to this topic ; .while, in many
of them, the old nomenclature being foundincor-
rigibly barbarous and defective, has been com-
pletely abandoned, and a. new one invented in its
stead, of which we have striking and familiar ex-
amples in the collateral branches of Chemistry,
Botany, Natural History, and Mineralogy.
He then observed that there is no nomencla-
ture whatever so utterly barbarous and perplexed
as that of the art of healing, and consequently so ,

li't'reolt for a student to acquire a mastery of :
that it has hero _wined, in nolk.rent ag,s, 110141
almost every language in the world, anti from
every gild hypothesis that has ever bet n spa vned
forth by imagination, founded upon ro coat non
principle, and, in many instances, regulated by
no common nrean•ng. lie gave various striking
and pointed examples of all these charges, and
reniarlted, that not withstainliog there is no •voca-
bulary that requires so much simplification auti
purification, there is none whatever in which so
little pains has been taken 'upon either or these
points ; that there is nOt a book upon what rosy
strictly.be called Medical Philology in the world,
nor a school in any quarter of it, in which this
subject is, he would not say critically indagatcd,
but generally touched upon ; and gave a glance
at the manner in which he proposes, as tar as
possible, to correct these evils in the ensuing
course of Lectures, following up the corrective
spirit he has already evinced in his published
system.
But the accomplishment of all this, he observed,
demands ii much longer period of time than is ap-
propriated to the purpose of a series of simil,ir
Lectures in our . leading Hospitals, where Ilia
course is finished in three months with a Lecture,
limited to an lrour,•given only three times a week.
He calculated the number of distinct specific dis-
eases,. froM the lowest estimate to which they
had been reduced by the best authorities, at up-
wards of three hundred and fifty, and sheaved that
a course of Lectures, thus limited, could not ex-
ceed from thirty-six to thirty-nine hours, for the
whole-or this- extensive field of matter—being
only.in•tht proportion of about one hour to every
ten clisaSes, to say nothing of the collateral_ lite-
rature with Which every one should be illustrated.
tipon this part of his subject he was particularly
forcible and animated,'and especially in animad-
verting upon -the ustial mode of the Lecturer's
taking general principles alone, and then confin-
ing himself to a few diseases under each, by way
of exemplification. He dwelt poignantly upon
the inconsistency of such conduct, in respect to
what is due from the Lectuter both to the public
and the indiViduals who are placed under his care.
in respect to the more comprehensive mode by
which all other sciences are taught in every school
whatever, and in respect to the unfortunate Jesuit
which it must often have upon the practice of stu-
dents thus defectively instructed. General princi-
ples, therefore,with a few diseases under each, can
do nothing, nor can the most masterly talents or
ingenuity, nor the most terse and compressed style,
contrive to pack up a sufficient quantity of infor-
mation into so small a compass. It is, said he,
as though a grave Professor of Divinity, in lay-
ing clown before his class, in one of oar Univer-
sities, the principles and doctrines of the Chris-
tian religion,•were to content himself with giving
to each of them, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer,
and the Ten Commandments, all curiously re•
duced, as they sometimes have been, to the size
df a silver shilling, and then sending them forth
into the country, with 'this testimonial in their
pockets, as expert and finished clergymen.
He justified these remarks by the far more
comprehensive
stirade in which the science of
medicine is taught at Edinburgh, at Leyden, and
in most other places of reputation as medical
schools; and concluded by observing, that tbougb
be knew the impracticability of encroaching very
far on established habits, and the usual term of
time which can be spared by students for acquire
lug a medical education in this part of the coun-
try, yet it was his determination to proceed as
far as he was able; and while he did not feel at
liberty to stretch much beyond the usual term of
three mouths, he would at least double the usual,
time, by giving a lecture on the same subject
daily, by which means
.he hoped -to be able to ac..;
complish the imnortaut ta'k he has undertaken.