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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



equally, or almost equally, suitable for ele- 

 mentary instruction (see Edgeworth's ' Prac- 

 tical Education,' and 'Harry and Lucy'), 

 a collateral or supplementary training, simi- 

 lar in spirit and plan to Miss Youmans's in 

 experimental mechanics founded on the 

 phenomena of mechanical action. Botany 

 for observation, mechanics for experiment, 

 would complete that foundation of nature 

 and fact on which technical education, if it 

 is to be a reality and not a pretence, must 

 lye ultimately based." 



MISCELLANY. 



TEE NATURE OF DISEASE. BY SIB WM. 

 W. GULL, BABT., M. D., E.B.S. 1 



In addressing you this evening, gentle- 

 men, I have in some sort to throw myself 

 on the forbearance of the Society, for, though 

 I have been able to bring certain ideas to- 

 gether on the subject on which I desire to 

 speak, I have not, for want of time, been 

 able to adopt a form of words such as I 

 would have liked. In some sense I am the 

 spokesman of the Society as its President, 

 in especial when laying before the public 

 the objects of the Society as I would now 

 do. 



We, in our calling, differ from some 

 theologians in one important respect : they 

 look on this world as a decaying world, as 

 much worse than it once was ; we, as stu- 

 dents of Nature, are opposed to this view, 

 for, if we look to the history of Nature, we 

 see we are ever advancing toward perfec- 

 tion, even if we are not likely to reach it. 

 This is an improving world, and we are met 

 to advance that idea. We believe that this 

 world has something better in store for all 

 than any thing which has yet been seen, 

 and are like to the convalescent, whose last 

 day should always be the very best he has 

 ever spent. Some men are apt to think 

 that science has certain limits set to it, be- 

 yond which no man may go ; but we believe 

 that knowledge extends far beyond the 

 strictly scientific limit. Doubtless, were 

 the early lower animals assembled together 

 in conclave, they would conceive it quite 

 impossible to transcend their status; that 



Bemarks before the Clinical Society of London. 



when the world came to megatheriums, let 

 us say, then it must stop. They could not 

 conceive the possibility of such a being as 

 man. But at this point we join the theolo- 

 gians again in accepting a metaphysical ele- 

 ment, in forming conceptions of things of 

 which we can have no positive knowledge. 

 In this way we may be said to worship Na- 

 ture, but only in a very limited sense. We 

 look upon our being, not as perfect, but as 

 becoming perfect, and we are here to-night 

 and at all times have it as our object to 

 improve these defects of Nature, and to en- 

 deavor to perfect the human frame. 



Respecting the object we work for 

 this living organism of ours one great ad- 

 vance has of late been made. We are ac- 

 quiring a physiological notion of disease. 

 Disease is no entity ; it is but a modifica- 

 tion of health a perverted physiological 

 process ; and this must at all times be in- 

 sisted upon. Were it not that we feai 

 death, and dislike pain, we should not look 

 upon disease as any thing abnormal in the 

 life-process, but to be as part and parcel of 

 it. Few would now venture on a definition 

 of disease ; for in reality it is but the course 

 of Nature in a living thing which is not 

 health. In health the balance of function 

 is even ; incline it to either side, and there 

 is disease. That being so, just as the life- 

 process constitutes an individual and put3 

 him apart from his fellows, so must any al- 

 teration in it be individual, and not general. 

 But to the ignorant disease is an entity an 

 evil spirit which attacks us and seizes us. 

 Hence arises the word "seizure," which, 

 though in a somewhat different way, we still 

 use, but with a protest. To the charlatan, 

 disease is a set of symptoms to be attacked 

 by a variety of drugs a drug for each 

 symptom. To us, disease is a life-process 

 of a perverted kind. 



Many states are not now called diseases 

 which used to be, and there are still some 

 to be expunged. Some people are alway? 

 ailing. Some have feeble stability, and tc 

 them it is as natural to be ill as it is to 

 others to be well ; but this is not disease. 

 So, too, aged persons get ill ; b it this is not 

 disease in reality, it is natural change 

 simulating disease, and, when we try to cure 

 such, we use all the farrago of the chemist's 

 shop to prevent the sun setting. So syohi 



