35 



eluding some whose causes have not been definitely identified, analogy ad- 

 mitting their inclusion. The reactions or intoxications due to the ingestion 

 of chemical substances, sucli as alcohol, morphia and lead, follow, with a 

 mention of sunstroke — and then all at once there is a classification riot. 

 For want of something better, a number of diseases are described under 

 the head of "Constitutional Diseases." Then follow a host of affections 

 and diseases that for convenience are grouped vmder their respective 

 organs, beginning with the diseases of the moutli and running down the 

 alimentary tract, followed by the affections of the other organic systems — 

 the respiratory, the nervous, etc. One-third of the book is thus definite, 

 based on a scientific system, the rest is simply based on convenience of ref- 

 erence. Although we have here real progress, yet how much still remains 

 to be done. 



Some of you may recall the story of the amateur botanist who com- 

 plained to Linneus of the poverty of Sweden in material for study, and 

 how Linneus placed his hand over a tuft of moss and said, "Here is study 

 for a life-time." To study diseases we need not go to unexplored Africa, 

 where so many new and strange diseases are being found ; our common 

 every-day ailments and affections and diseases are worthy of the deepest 

 study, much is still to be learned about them. Not all is known about 

 common everyday coughs and colds, about rheumatic and neuralgic aches 

 and pains, about anemia and fever, dyspepsia and nervousness. 



The old physicians diagnosed diseases almost wholly from or by their 

 symptoms, and they were close observers, with sharpened senses like those 

 of the Indian. The modern j)hysician relies to a great extent on so-called 

 laboratory methods, and the influence of the college and university labora- 

 tories is being felt. Rough and ready methods are more and more being 

 replaced by refined ones. But \Ae must not undervalue the importance of 

 simple observations, without the use of instruments, nor should we neglect 

 the training of the sense organs. 



Scientific classifications are for scientific minds, but we nuist not for- 

 get that "Nature makes transitions and naturalists make divisions." Hair 

 splitting iu medical classifications, or nosology, is not unknown. As a mat- 

 ter of fact each group of specialists has its own system and nomenclature, 

 and when the average all-round physician takes up one of the special 

 treatises he requires the aid of a medical dictionary. 



Popularly we can classify the diseases of our State, including those 

 we have had in the past and not excluding those still to come, according 



