260 Dr. Mayo, on the Relations of the Public [May 1 1, 



hy the profession*, that namely of Dr. Beddoes, whose scientific merits 

 were as undoubted as those of Dr. Currie, proceeded to consider the 

 question, how far his remarks in favour of popularising some amount of 

 medical or hygienic education apply to the capabilities and position of 

 females. 



Having thus far estimated the action of the public on the medical 

 profession, the speaker proceeded to consider the action of the profes- 

 sion on the public, i.e. the share of duties which belong to the profes- 

 sion in regard to it. In this point of view, he proposed, as within the 

 limits of liis allotted time, to describe the mental dynamics of the pro- 

 fession, whether as engaged in actual practice, or in the province of 

 research. 



The first object of medical reasoning thus contemplated, when 

 brought to bear upon practical conclusions, whether at the bedside of 

 the patient, or in ulterior pathological enquiry, is to reduce cases to 

 the general law, or laws, under which they fall. Subservient to this 

 purpose, a large fund of systematized knowledge, both in pathology 

 and treatment, has been accumulated. Some amount of attentive ob- 

 servation may possibly by their means satisfy the requirements here 

 supposed, and assign the cases to the place which they hold in the 

 history of disease. But, owing to the points of difference by which 

 men are individualized, combined with our still imperfect scientific 

 knowledge, the case may seldom be thus disposed of. It is often seen 

 to contain elements, neither referable to known causes, nor capable of 

 being subordinated to any previous theory. Here, another faculty of 

 a higher and more energetic character must be called into use by the 

 practitioner or thinker. He must drift helplessly down the current of 

 his own associations and those supplied to him by the teaching of 

 others, unless he is able to seize some leading idea to be applied by 

 him to the nature and conduct of the case. He must in fact extempo- 

 rise an hypothesis. If truth more readily merges out of error than out 

 of confusion, some process of this kind must be adopted, even though 

 it should suggest in the case before him a temporary negation of 

 measures. The imagination, the speculative power, and the memory 

 must combine with the knowledge of the physician, to answer the 

 questions here suggested ; and, according to the construction of his 

 mind on these points, the hypothesis will come out clear and practical, 

 or fanciful and obscure. This is the analysis of an operation, which, 

 under the influence of habit, often bears the character of an instinctive 

 perception. 



While this kind of reasoning is immediately applicable in actual 

 practice, it enters also into the speculations of those who have most 

 extended the boundaries of our knowledge ; but with this important 

 difference, that the physician rhust often be contented with an hypo- 

 thesis at the bedside, which will explain the symptoms of the patient, 

 and thus suggest grounds, where immediate practice is required ; while 



* The treatment of disease by Pneumatic Medicine. 



