Note 23 — AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH-AMERICA; AND A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THEIR DISEASES AND REMEDIES WITH THOSE OF CIVILIZED NATIONS. Read before the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia, on the 4th of February, 1774.

The first regular practitioners of physic in Rome, were women and slaves. The profession was confined to them above six hundred years. The Romans, during this period, lived chiefly upon vegetables, particularly upon PULSE; and hence they were called, by their neighbours, PULTIFAGI. They were likewise early inured to the healthy employments of war and husbandry. Their diseases, of course, were too few and simple to render the cure of them an object of liberal profession. When their diseases became more numerous and complicated, their investigation and cure required the aids of philosophy. The profession from this time became liberal; and maintained a rank with the other professions which are founded upon the imperfection and depravity of human institutions. Physicians are as necessary in the advanced stages of society as surgeons, although their office is less ancient and certain. There are many artificial diseases, in which they give certain relief; and even where their art fails, their prescriptions are still necessary, in order to smooth the avenues of death.