234 SPECIES NOT 



absurdity crumbles into dust, when the mind, 

 educated in the laws of life, and conversant with 

 the forms of human disease, ponders for a moment 

 upon such an explanation. 



This subject has been well and beautifully 

 handled by Simon, in his "Pathology," and I 

 cannot forbear quoting the following passage, 

 (page 17:) 



u We find that disease works according to laws 

 definite, constant, invariable; we find in it no 

 contradiction to the laws of life; on the contrary, 

 that the latter, in their simplicity and compre- 

 hensiveness, include and account for it; that the 

 power of adaptation to circumstances, the power 

 of resistance to casualties, the power of repair 

 after injuries, would not be possible or conceivable 

 attributes of the human body, except under con- 

 ditions which impose the liability to disease. At 

 every turn of the subject, and in every fresh 

 illustration, which new study reveals to us, we 

 derive deeper and more steadfast convictions of 

 the total absence of caprice, chance, or irregu- 

 larity, even in the strongest influences of disease. 

 We become habitual observers of that mystery, 

 which most of all tends to chasten and elevate 

 the mind; observers, namely, of the unbroken 

 uniformity which prevails in the operation of 

 natural laws. Standing in the daily exercise of 

 our profession, amidst an apparent chaos of dark- 

 ness and suffering, where all at first seems as of 

 yore, 4 to be without form and void, 7 it is one 

 great privilege, that by the aid of scientific in- 



