II 



During the sixty years since these words were written 

 comparative pathology has advanced with giant strides. 

 The continual progress of veterinary pathology brought 

 a good deal of new matter, but bacteriology has done 

 most to widen the range. On the one hand it has, as 

 it were, entirely effaced, as far as infectious diseases 

 are concerned, the line between animal and human pa- 

 thology, and on the other it has gradually led to a greater 

 variety of animals being used in pathological laborato- 

 ries. But also many other factors have promoted the 

 development of a comparative pathology. The increasing 

 experimental character of zoology, the important posi- 

 tion which in embryology is held by the experiments 

 in the mechanics of development and teratology, the 

 studies of everything connected with the irritability of 

 monocellular animals, and a number of other circum- 

 stances have led to a much greater increase in the 

 quantity of pathological material than any one could 

 have dreamt of fifty years ago. Experimental patho- 

 logy nowadays is looking for its subjects all over 

 the animal and vegetable world. If Fenger could have 

 read Metschnikoffs Lecons snr la pathologic comparee 

 de I' inflammation, he would certainly have found them 

 quite in accordance with his ideas. 



But if certain parts of pathology allow of such a com- 

 parative treatment, the time is still far distant when the 

 medical student can expect to be taught comparative 

 pathology in a systematic way; the latter science may 

 perhaps never become an appropriate subject. Still, 

 whenever general pathology is taught, the ultimate end 

 should be pointed out. The three courses described 

 above are perfectly well fitted for that purpose. In fact, 

 when making parasitological experiments the students 

 are working just as much or rather more with diseases 



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