Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on surgical anatomy / by Abraham Colles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![to discover llic composition of suLsinncc.s ^vl]icIl^ though deposited in certain appropriated receptacles of the living bodj;, arc jet to he considered as not under the immediate iutiiiencc of the livijig power ; Chcmistrj„ I say^ applied tlius far, will not .onJj assist our researches into the animal economy, but may also ultimately guide our prac- tice to a more judicious treatment. But this is the utmost extent of its utility to the healing art. Thus far^, and no farther^ are the principles of the one science applicable to the plnenomena of tlte other. HerCj nature seems to have fixed so immovcablyj the common bo-uiidaries of botin that bejmnd those limits^ it appears scarcely possible for/ Chemistry ever to extend her empire over the province of Medicine. I know how contrary this is to the prevailing opinion—I well know how' fashionable it is to lavish on Chemistry the most unqualified praise^ and to attribute to it the most unbounded utility to the study and practice of Medicine; but however popular tlie studj' of this fascinating science may bC;, however ardent the hopes^ and enthusiastic the expectations of its admirers^, I trust that I shall be able to satisfy your ingenuous and unprejudiced miiids^ that the vital properties of tlie human sj stem, depend not on its chemical principles, and that the great and complicated operations of the animal oeconomy are not subject to the same laws that govern the minute and detached particles of inanimate matter.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24926000_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
