[ xvii ]
sue every branch of his profession? or how shall he know that the Medicines are good, which he orders if he does not prepare them himself?
Answer, It is not only expedient, but necessary that a physician should have a general and extensive knowledge of the whole art, and be acquainted with the principles of every branch of his profession Thus the general of an army should be acquainted with every part of military science, and understand the whole detail of military duty, from that of colonel down to a private centinel. But there is no need that he should act as a pioneer and dig in a trench. Where a proper subordination is wanting, there is a perversion of all practical knowledge. No more then is a physician obliged, from his office, to handle a knife with a surgeon; to cull herbs with the botanist; to distill simples with the chymist; or compound drugs with the apothecary. Can he be more sure however that his Medicines are genuine, if he does not collect his own herbs and roots as a botanist, or distill with the chymist, than he can, if, omitting these, he should stick to the plaister-pan and spatula, or the pestle and mortar?
But practitioners in great business never do, or can do the business of an apothecary in this place, themselves. They have apprentices for
