348 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE xiv 



of living beings. In fact, the practical aspect of 

 medicine so far dominates over every other, that 

 the " Healing Art " is one of its most widely-re- 

 ceived synonyms. It is so difficult to think of 

 medicine otherwise than as somethinc: which is 

 necessarily connected with curative treatment, that 

 we are apt to forget that there nmst be, and is, such 

 a thing as a pure science of medicine — a " pathol- 

 ogy " which has no more necessary subservience 

 to practical ends than has zoology or botany. 



The logical connection between this purely 

 scientific doctrine of disease, or pathology, and 

 ordinary biology, is easily traced. Living matter 

 is characterised by its innate tendency to exhibit a 

 definite series of the morphological and physio- 

 logical phenomena which constitute organisation 

 and life. Given a certain range of conditions, and 

 these phenomena remain the same, within narrow 

 limits, for each kind of living thing. They fur- 

 nish the normal and typical character of the spe- 

 cies, and, as such, they are the subject-matter of 

 ordinary biolo^jv. 



Outside the range of these conditions, the nor- 

 mal course of the cycle of vital phenomena is dis- 

 turbed; abnormal structure makes its appearance, 

 or the proper character and mutual adjustment of 

 the functions cease to be preserved. The extent 

 and the importance of these deviations from the 

 typical life may vary indefinitely. They may have 

 no noticeable influence on the general well-being 



