PHYSIOLOGICAL REGULATIONS 451 



cure. All this might be put into quantitative terms, as corollaries 

 of the above study of physiological interrelations. Further, it can 

 be realized how infinitely small is the chance of finding a thera- 

 peutic agent that shall correct one load without disturbing other 

 components ; this statement corresponds to the discrediting of 

 symptomatic treatments. 



A task of medicine may be pictured, even as Hippocrates pic- 

 tured it, as the encouragement and assistance of physiological 

 recoveries and the prevention of loadings. Popularly it is sup- 

 posed that physiology contributes to this art chiefly by furnishing 

 "wiring diagrams" to show the connections between one organ and 

 another, with arrows leading hither and yon. From that the 

 clinician is expected to guess which wires to cut or mend. I believe 

 that physiology fulfills a larger function by furnishing its story of 

 equilibrations through exchanges, and its detailed picture of inter- 

 relations. From those it is possible to rationalize the particular 

 combination of signs, the possibility of correctives, and the prog- 

 nosis of inherent self -managements. From those it is also possible 

 by simplified tests to plot the state of the individual and to measure 

 his progress toward or from balance. 



§ 163. Summary 



Regulation corresponds to certain of the correlations (interre- 

 lations) that are here investigated. Whether one likes this term 

 or some other or none, the associations of rates of exchange with 

 particular excesses and deficits recur in many organisms in uni- 

 form patterns of a sort epitomized by it. Realization of the con- 

 stant features of these patterns aids in assimilating and compre- 

 hending diverse data of physiology and applied biology. Various 

 notions about health and disease are found to be particular in- 

 stances of these general properties. 



The concept of regulation is here not something added to the 

 observation of phenomena, but is a generalized statement of uni- 

 formities in the relations among them. Instead of being a luxuri- 

 ous superfluity in biology, a metabiology, I believe that study of 

 certain data compels the recognition of relations conveniently 

 denoted by the word regulation, in the same sense that it compels 

 the recognition of individuality, coordination, life, equilibrium, or 

 other forms of relation. 



