A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine Page: 8 of 724

8

MEDICAL CORRESPONDENCE.

in regarding as the curse of this country; such a work, as you justly
intimate, must be thoroughly eclectic, and not (as we have seen so
many of late) devoted to the absurd and ephemeral theories of the day,
which seem to succeed one another as season succeeds season, and how-
ever contradictory or opposite they may be, can yet each become the
fashion of the'hdur. These I shall leave to those who delight in them.
Attention should be called to whatever are already acknowledged facts,
and for practice, these facts should belappropriately classified and
distinctly presented to the mind. Neither novel views nor fanciful
theories ought, in such a treatise, to be advanced or advocated. How
far you may approve such a plan, or I may be able to carry it out
with success, remains to be proved. My main reliance is on your
generous aid. After the accomplishment of my task, should I, indeed,
be permitted to fulfill it, I shall be more than rewarded, if I can say
in the words of Sir William Temple-" If I have not been able to
inform men more than they knew, I may yet have given them occasion
to consider more than they do."
Renewing my thanks for the honor you have conferred upon me,
with my best wishes for your personal welfare, I remain, respectfully,
your obedient servant,
J. C. MASSIE, M. D.
To MEssEs. W. S. ROGERS, R. J. SWEARENGIN,
W. LEIGH TUNSTALL, J. RANDOLPIH WEIR,
J. W. LOCKHART, F. T. WELLS,
J. BLACK, WM. A. MINNOCK,
J. A. WOOLFOLK, LOUIS A. BRYAN,
J. L. IRION, SIM. HOPKINS,
D. C. DICKSON, W. C. McGOWN.