natural philofophy and anatomy were falfe and unnatural, (and it is upon anatomy and natural philofophy, that phyfiology or the ufe of the parts is founded,) we can expect nothing from the antients upon thefe heads, but mere imaginations, or notions unfupported by obfervation or matter of fact. It is their history of diseases fupports their character. Hyppocrates, in particular, excels all others on this head: but this great man was not perfect even in this. Knowledge in nature is the daughter of time and experience. Many notions of the animal œconomy were then abfurd; and if Hippocrates was too wife to act always up to his theory, yet he could not be entirely free from its influence.

The names of the antient original greek medical writers are, Hippocrates, Diofcorides, Aritæus,

lifhed his famous book, La fabrique du corps humain, which was the admiration of all men of fcience: And a little after, he made a prefent of the first skeleton the world ever faw, to the univerfity of Bale; where it is ftill to be seen. This great man, Andrew Kefal, was born the last of April, 1512; and in the 58th year of his age, October 15, 1564, he was shipwrecked on the ile of Zante, and in the deferts there was famished to death. His body was found by a goldfmith of his acquaintance, who happened to land there not long after, and by this man buried. Vefal's works are two volumes in folio, published by Herman Boerhaave, Lugduni Batavorum, 1725. Every phyfician ought to have them.

Aritæus, Galen, and Alexander. The latin writers of phyfic are, Celfus, Scribonius Largus, Calius Aurelianus, Marcellus Empericus, Theodorus Prifcianus, and Sextus Placitus. We have befides feveral collectors, as Oribafius, Aetius, Paulus Æginita, &c. Nicander,. the medical poet; and the fragments of Soranus, Rufus Ephefius, Zonorates, Vindicianus, Diocles Caryftius, Caffius, and a few others but all these may be looked into afterwards. The original authors are fufficient in the noviciate.

As to the latin medical writers, Celfus, and Cælius Aurelianus only, are worth reading. Celfus lived in the latter end of the reign of Auguftus, and is admirable for the purity of his latin, and the elegance of his fenfe. You must have him night and morning in your hands, till you are a master of the terms and expreffions peculiar to phyfic, which occur in him. The ftyle of Calius is very bad, and his cavils tedious: but his description of difeafes is full and accurate. In this refpect he is a very valuable writer. He lived in the second century, as did Galen likewife.

*

As to Hippocrates, who was contemporary with Socrates, he was born the first year of the 80th Olympiad, 460 before

Christ.

Chrift. René Chartier's Edit. Paris, 1639, is the most pompous: but Vander Linden's, Leyden, 1668, 2 vols. in 8vo. is the beft. When I read Hippocrates, I did alfo look into Profper Alpini's good book, De prefagienda vita et morte ægrotantium: In which he has with great care collected and methodized all the fcattered observations of Hippocrates, relating to the dangerous or falutary appearances in diseases. At the fame time, I likewife read this great man's Medicina Methodica. (He died profeffor of botany at Padua, Feb. 1617, Æt. 64. and was born November, 1553.) I did likewife look into the best commentators on Hippocrates; whofe names you will find in Conringius's Introduction, which I have mentioned.

N. B. The best edition of Diofcorides's Materia medica, is that of Frankfort, 1598, folio. The best edition of Ariteus, who lived before Julius Cefar's time (as Diofcorides did, A. D. 46) is Boerhaave's 1731, folio. The best edition of Galen's works, are that of Bâle, 1538, in 5 vols. and that of Venice, 1625, in 27 volumes. Alexander of Tralles flourished in the 6th century, un→ der Juftinian the Great, and left the following works, Therapentica, Lib. 12. De fingularum corporis partium vitiis, ægritudinibus,

& injuriis, Lib. 5. Epift. de lumbricis : Tractatus de puerorum morbis Liber Liber de febribus. The best greek copy is that of Stephens, Paris, 1548, folio. In greek and latin. Bafil, 1658. But in neither of thefe editions is to be found the Epiftle de lumbricis. You must look for that in the 12th volume of Fabricius's Bibliotheca Grata.

In the laft place, befides all the authors I have mentioned, I likewife looked into the original obfervation writers, and mifcellaneous books relating to phyfic. They afford excellent knowledge, where the au thors are faithful and judicious. Such are the obfervationes medica of Nicolaus Tulpius (a curious book; and the dedication of it to his fon Peter, a student in phyfic, good advice; 2d edition, 1652, is the beft: it is a fourth part larger than the rft edition, that came out in 1641.) The obfervationes et curationes medicinales of Petrus Foreftus, Lib. 22. The obfervationes medica of Joannes Theodorus Schenkius. -And the various Journals, and Tranfactions of learned Societies; which are repofitories in which the phyfician finds much rare and valuable knowledge. And as a phyfician ought to have a little acquaintance with the m modern practice of furgery, I concluded with Heifter's, Turner's, and Sharp's Surgery.

By

By this method of ftudying phyfic in the middle of a wood, and employing my time and pains in reading the antients, and confidering their plain and natural account of diseases, I became a Doctor, as well as if I had been a regular collegiate in the world.--But it is time to think of my various story, and Ishall detain my reader no longer from it, than while he reads the following tranflation of the charming mythological picture of Cebes; which is placed here, as the golden 10th Satire of Juvenal is put after the XIIIth Section of this work, by way of entertainment between the acts.

A Tranflation of the Mythological Picture of Cebes: By the Rev and famous Jeremy Collier.

AS we were taking

a turn in Saturn's

temple, we faw a great many confecrated prefents, remarkable enough for their curiofity: Amongst the reft, we took parti

cular