178 THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



again, for the most part been accomplished by bacteriology. Although 

 for some time before the development of the latter subject, pathology 

 was brought into the laboratory, yet the working up of the material 

 was greatly restricted for want of knowledge of so important a factor 

 in disease as micro-organisms. It was only after the discovery of 

 pathogenic microbes that the experimenter had the whole field of 

 pathological physiology opened up to him. One is now able to in- 

 vestigate almost every pathological phenomenon in the laboratory. 



While clinical medicine has clearly distinguished the different types 

 of diseases, and has given an almost perfect morphology of pathological 

 conditions, and while macroscopic and microscopic anatomy in associ- 

 ation with clinical investigation have, in recent times, collected an 

 enormous amount of material concerning the finer processes of disease, 

 and, indeed, still continue to do so, yet the possibility of a complete 

 analysis of the whole course of a disease from its inception to its cure- 

 that is, of a thorough knowledge of all the processes of a disease was 

 first attained by the method of experiment. Pathological anatomy 

 provides too crude an instrument for this, and clinical observation 

 without experiment is powerless in face of the complexity of the 

 phenomena. It is laboratory experiment alone that is capable of 

 unravelling in the organism, the whole problem of disease, and of 

 exactly differentiating the reparative from the compensatory events, 

 the protective phenomena from the lesion itself. It is only by such 

 experience that the interweaving of these latter can be detected, that 

 it can be proved where the primary injury lies, and where the secondary 

 which it has called forth. It is by such knowledge alone that appro- 

 priate and effective assistance can be rendered to the diseased organism. 

 Then, and then only, will our interference be followed by no evil results, 

 but on the contrary always bring help. 



Again, it is only by experiment that we can ultimately discover the 

 real cause of a disease and estimate its importance, since in it we always 

 begin with a causal factor which is intentionally set to work. It is 

 precisely here that the power of clinical medicine is least. Etiology, as 

 is well known, is the weakest branch of medicine. As a matter of fact, 

 the cause usually steals in, and begins to work in the organism before 

 the patient becomes an object of medical care. But the recognition of 

 the origin of disease is one of the most essential problems of medicine. 

 For in the first place, one can only fight the etiological factor, with a 

 proper knowledge of what is to be aimed at, when the cause is known. 

 On the other hand, it is only under these conditions, and this is 

 still more important, that one can forestall the cause of disease, and 

 render it harmless before it has penetrated into the organism. It is 

 only when the full etiology of disease is known that the medicine of 



