Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EM-PIR'I-CISM, n.

1. Dependence of a physician on his experience in practice, without the aid of a regular medical education.
2. The practice of medicine without a medical education. Hence, quackery; the pretensions of an ignorant man to medical skill. Shudder to destroy life, either by the naked knife, or by the surer and safer medium of empiricism. Dwight.