THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE. 637 



of the family are scientifically untrustworthy. They may, therefore, 

 be practically ignored. Yet we infer from the paper that most of the 

 experiments were made under these conditions ; and we read that the 

 presence of the father " seemed decidedly to increase the percentage 

 of successes." 



The authors, indeed, say, "Though generally the object selected 

 was shown to the members of the family present in the room, we were 

 sometimes entirely alone." From the only rational point of view, that 

 of scientific skepticism, and therefore with total disregard of the per- 

 sonal factor, this consideration seems in no way to invalidate the line 

 of comment here taken. It is not clear to how many of the three 

 observers the pronoun " we " in the above passage refers ; but, at any 

 rate, we miss entirely in the paper any specific quotation of results 

 obtained in this latter set of circumstances. 



But, even if this evidence had been forthcoming, no mere ipse dixit 

 on such a matter could for one moment be admitted. Reason would 

 require us to entertain the great probability of mental bias in some at 

 least of the observers, or to discredit the accuracy of their memory, 

 rather than to allow that anything has been adduced in this account 

 of what, to say the least, must be called superficially conducted experi- 

 ments, to warrant a recognition of any novelty, or, by consequence, to 

 stand in need of explanation by a theory of "brain- waves." Nine- 

 teenth Century. 



- 



THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE * 



By Peofessor GEOEGE H. PEEKIXS. 



A CHANGE in the theory of disease, which long since began, but 

 is not yet completed, must profoundly affect the work of the phy- 

 sician of the future. Disease was formerly believed to be a something 

 which had a sort of independent existence, and which went about over 

 the earth seeking whom it might assail. When this something had 

 entered the body of a man it created confusion in his internal economy, 

 and order could not be restored until the intruder was driven out. 

 Accordingly, remedies none of the gentlest were vigorously applied 

 until the disease was scared away or the patient died. It is strange 

 how universal among men this belief in a possession, an entrance of 

 something into the body causing disease, has been. 



This savage idea was long perpetuated among civilized people, and 

 remedies were used which were hardly less absurd than the leapings, 

 howlings, and rattle-shakings of an Indian medicine-man. The change 



* An Address delivered at the opening of the Twenty-ninth Annual Course of Lect- 

 ures in the Medical Department of the University of Vermont. 



