Note 824 — Chapter V · (continued 3)

In 1759, he wrote to Dr. Balfour Russell, one of his favourite pupils: ‘You will not find it possible to separate practice from theory altogether; and therefore, if you have a mind to begin with the theory, I have no objection.’ Thomson's Life of Cullen, vol. i. p. 130. Compare his Introductory Lectures to the Practice of Physic, where, asserting truly, ‘that reasoning in physic is unavoidable’ (Cullen's Works, vol. i. p. 417), he boldly infers, ‘that to render it safe, it is necessary to cultivate theory in its full extent.’