The third point is upon principles that are at once plain and intelligible. The cure must proceed from above downwards, from within outwards, in the reverse direction of their coming. In perceiving what is to be cured in disease one must proceed from generals to particulars, study disease in its most general features, not as seen upon one particular individual, but upon the entire human race. If the physician clearly perceives what is curative in medicines, that is to say, in each individual medicine - Here again he proceeds from generals to particulars. We can only comprehend the nature of disease, and tissue changes the result of disease, by going back to its beginning.
All curable diseases make themselves known to the physician by signs and symptoms.
When the disease does not make itself known in signs and symptoms and it progress is in the interior, we at once perceive that that man is in a precarious state. He is likewise a preserver of health if he knows the things that derange health and cause disease, and how to remove them from persons in health. There are conditions in man's life which keep up or encourage man's disorder. The disorder is from the interior, but many of the disturbances that aggravate the disorders are external. The cause of disorder is internal and is of such a quality that it affects the government from the interior, while the coarser things are such as can disturb more especially the body, such as improperly selected food, living in damp houses, etc.