26 MEDICINE 



One of the greatest changes which has taken place in the last 

 century is the general acceptance of the idea that medicine is a 

 natural science, in which knowledge must be sought by the methods 

 of science, namely, observation and experiment, and that disease is 

 the result of injurious conditions acting upon the tissues. A great 

 part of the mystery surrounding disease has been removed by know- 

 ledge of the conditions which give rise to it, with the further know- 

 ledge that it is possible to prevent disease by removing such con- 

 ditions. Even though some may still believe that an epidemic of 

 typhoid fever is an act of God, they must see that the action is 

 exerted by means of a defective water-supply, and the surest way 

 of removing the epidemic is not by supplication, but by purifying 

 the water. At no time in the world's history has the importance of 

 knowledge been so fully recognized as at present. People see the 

 application of knowledge in the arts, and that improvement in the 

 processes involved is directly dependent upon increased knowledge 

 of the processes. There is a closer union between science and art than 

 has ever been before. We see the influence of the appreciation of 

 knowledge in medicine in the general acceptance of the idea that 

 the hospital, in addition to taking care of the sick, shall furnish 

 facilities for the investigation of disease ; in the creation of institutes 

 devoted to the furtherance of medical knowledge, and in endow- 

 ments of universities to the same end. 



A brief glance at some of the more important periods in medical 

 history will enable us to trace the influence and the results of the 

 two methods by which knowledge has been sought. The history 

 of medicine begins with Hippocrates. Before him there were only 

 superstition and tradition without systematic observation and 

 description. He described accurately the results of his study of the 

 phenomena of disease, classified the phenomena, and based his 

 methods of treatment on his observations. The influence of Greek 

 philosophy made him attempt to explain the phenomena, by the 

 assumption of a force residing in and presiding over the body. The 

 contemporaries and successors of Hippocrates who regarded him 

 as a god, and his conclusions as unfailing axioms, entirely neglected 

 the methods by which he arrived at them. It must ever remain a 

 source of wonder that the light which burst upon medicine with the 

 advent of Hippocrates should so soon have passed into darkness. 

 The Greeks chose rather to speculate on the meaning of phenomena 

 than to investigate them. Galen, next to Hippocrates, had the 

 greatest influence on medicine, an influence which was dominant 

 for more than 1300 years. Galen mastered all the knowledge and 

 traditions of medicine at his time and made important contributions 

 to anatomy and physiology. He was the first to introduce the 

 experimental method into medicine, and gave a firm foundation 



