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Having, in the preceding lecture, given a general view of our wonderful structure, I shall, in this, endeavour to lay a foundation of the healing art, in order to assist nature when impaired by the attack of disease, or any unforeseen accidents.
But that I may become useful, and yet concise, I will, without loss of time, lead the reader to the principal distinction between health and disease; for without forming a proper judgment of an ailment, there can be no reasonable intention of cure. I shall therefore beg leave to solicit a serious attention to the following important observations, particularly, as they are founded upon the purest principles of _physic_, authenticated by happy success in an extensive practice, and communicated by the dictates of a candid and well disposed heart, that wishes Existence only as a useful member to society.
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When we consider the admirably curious structure of the human mechanism, it must clearly appear, how easily the animal œconomy may become disordered. But so kind has the ALLWISE AUTHOR of our existence been to his creatures, that on the slightest indisposition, the whole system is sensible of the least disagreeable sensation; and every part, with a social and sympathetic friendship, is ready to relieve the fabric from whatever is obnoxious, and causes the disturbance.
As nothing has a greater share in life than the blood, so nothing likewise on the least indisposition, is sooner set in commotion, and gives the alarm, than this very liquor, in which life itself is contained; and the circulation of this fluid in the arteries, furnishes us with the greatest prognostic, namely, the _pulse_, by which we may, with any degree of certainty, judge of the state of the body, and foretell good or bad events. How beneficial it is then to be acquainted with this knowledge, I shall leave to every rational being to determine.
Every artery in the living body constitutes a _pulse_, as has been explained in Sect. V. in the foregoing lecture.
And it is demonstrative from simple reason, that the pulsation of such arteries must be in proportion to their magnitude, greatest in the heart, whence they take their origin; till the vibration must gradually be lost to the touch, as they become insensibly small, and lose themselves in their ramificatory capillary tubes.