THE STUDY OF NEUROLOGY 239 



ing idea." The same tendency probably finds application in fact, in 

 the case of all complex reflexes, no matter of what sort. 



In order to give aid and guidance to the more favorable elements 

 of these processes of readjustment, we, as physicians, need to bend 

 all our powers to a better understanding of the resources which each 

 organism has at its command for compensation, for continued life on 

 the old lines, or for gaining a new and more stable life, no matter at 

 what sacrifice. The patient who thoroughly understands his resources 

 and is master of them, even if these are few and slight, is often in 

 a better position than one who has more to draw upon but who is 

 liable to be upset by surprises. 



In the accomplishment of this task we need all the help that 

 anatomy can furnish, but as it is the organism in activity that we seek 

 eventually to understand, it is necessary that the splendid services 

 of anatomy should be supplemented by physiology, and the physi- 

 cian above all the neurologist needs, therefore, to be trained, 

 more thoroughly than at present, to work and reason in accordance 

 with physiological conceptions and methods as applied to the problem 

 of disease. 



As regards our duty in the treatment of our patients, we should 

 not fail, first of all, to seek for the original cause, wherever it may lie 

 by which the old equilibrium of relative health has been, in one 

 direction or another, broken into, and we are, therefore, bound to 

 acquaint ourselves with all those functions and processes which are 

 related to nutrition in the broadest sense. Still, for the neurologist 

 in particular, the problem of nearest interest is often to gain a point 

 of temporary vantage for his patient by training him to make the 

 best of a present situation, and the methods by which this end is to 

 be accomplished are classifiable under the general name of education. 



In these methods the future therapeutics of the nervous system is 

 largely to assist; to them we are more and more to look for guidance, 

 both in relieving our patients of their ills and in teaching them how 

 to bear them. The physician who knows best how to appreciate the 

 needs and resources of those coming under his care, to divine their 

 capabilities, to search out the hidden causes of their present troubles 

 lying, perhaps, in the experiences of childhood - - the physician 

 who has the trained keenness to recognize that, however poor the 

 material with which he has to work, there is almost invariably some 

 benefit to be gained, if not in the direction of relief, then in that of 

 compensation - - such a physician as this can make himself of infinite 

 service to the community in which he lives and works. 



As among the newer representatives of the successful laborers in 

 this field, we ought to recognize not the scientific investigators alone, 

 but also those practical workers, whether lay or medical, who have 

 shown what education can actually accomplish. I have in mind, 



