TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 217 



ceptible morbid phenomena. Nor does the existence 

 of these difficulties appear extraordinary when we 

 reflect upon the uncertainty and inconclusiveness of 

 many of the data to which we are compelled to trust 

 for the detection of disease. The power of correctly 

 appreciating the value of symptoms is one of the 

 highest qualifications of a medical practitioner ; but 

 this faculty, in its highest and most perfect form, can 

 be acquired only by an attentive study of the laws 

 of life as contained in the sciences of physiology and 

 pathology. And I cannot but think that a neglect 

 of this important study, consequent on an unreflect- 

 ing and lasting adoption of the dogmatic, and in many 

 instances unfounded, statements and unmeaning de- 

 finitions of systematic nosologists, has been productive 

 of some serious errors, both in the diagnosis and 

 treatment of disease. These writers seem to have 

 frequently mistaken its symptoms or effects for the 

 disease itself, and by thus confounding, in their own 

 minds, certain generally co-existent but non-essen- 

 tial phenomena with the actual malady, they have 

 naturally impressed others with an idea that the 

 two are inseparable, and consequently that the pre- 

 sence of these phenomena constitutes satisfactory 

 proof of the existence of the disease : whereas, it is 

 now generally admitted that the number of really 

 pathognomonic symptoms is very limited ; that the 

 same morbid sensations and unnatural appearances 

 may result from very opposite causes, and require 

 for their removal very different plans of treatment, 

 and that in the diagnosis of disease it is more prudent 

 to check our first impressions until they have been 



