THE RELATIONS OF PATHOLOGY 109 



a proper field for work leading to higher degrees, and this is a much 

 desired progress in a most important direction. The direct interest 

 now taken by many persons in medical research, the institutes and 

 funds their munificence has established, are also having a most pro- 

 found influence upon the development of pathology in this country. 

 Another mighty current in favor of this development has set in from 

 the scientific work carried on in our various governmental and state 

 institutions. 



Pathology and Synthetic Sciences 



Let us now attempt to trace briefly the present relations of patho- 

 logy to cognate sciences with the object of learning, if possible, in 

 which direction the hope lies for greatest progress and to mark out 

 the paths along which our investigators must journey in order to 

 gather the best materials for that wider and larger pathological 

 biology upon which we are still to work. The clearest conception of 

 the role that the more important synthetic factors have had and are 

 having upon the development of pathology will be obtained through 

 the historical perspective. In this way, too, it may prove feasible 

 to show how some of the special problems have been solved and to 

 bring into relief the great coordination of useful knowledge exempli- 

 fied by practical medicine and the influence upon it that various 

 sciences have had and are having through the medium of pathology. 



The Anatomical Idea in Medicine 



Anatomy was one of the earliest biological sciences to receive 

 cultivation. The first laboratory for the training of students was 

 the anatomical. One cause at least for this, if not the cause, was 

 the downright necessity for physicians to become closely acquainted 

 with the structure as well as the functions of the human body. It is 

 consequently not strange that pathology in the usual modern sense 

 should begin as pathological anatomy, that is with the study of the 

 grosser, evident alterations in structure that result from disease and 

 upon which in turn rest many of the disturbances of function observed 

 in disease. In its earlier stages pathological anatomy busied itself 

 with the accumulation of a store of facts and observations gained 

 almost wholly by the examination of human bodies after death. 

 Morgagni was the first to attempt any generalization from this store 

 of facts and by correlating the anatomical changes observed after 

 death with the disturbances of functions observed as clinical symp- 

 toms during life, he was able to draw conclusions of fundamental 

 importance in regard to the seats and causes, at least in certain 

 phases, of disease. This is the first instance of synthesis on a large 



