METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION. 19 



pensable. Is there a single disease that is not attended by 

 chemical changes ? Can we ever hope to comprehend or explain 

 the nature of any process, if we are ignorant of its integral factors ? 

 Life cannot exist without chemical movements, disease cannot exist 

 without chemical changes. Thus much in reference to pathology ; 

 while in respect to therapeutics, it is almost superfluous to observe 

 that chemistry here also plays the principal part, for where has 

 modern pharmacology sought its chief support, save in chemical 

 processes and principles ? And if we have advanced so far towards 

 a clear insight as no longer to ascribe supernatural forces to medi- 

 cines^ but to derive their efficiency specially from chemical 

 properties, then must chemistry be the supporting basis of phar- 

 macology. The physician acts upon the body mostly by the aid 

 of matter, which retains its characteristic powers within no less 

 than without the organism. If then nervous action likewise falls 

 within the sphere of chemical metamorphoses, the Nervina (or 

 Neurotica) of pharmacologists must primarily at least act chemi- 

 cally on this system. 



To those who stand on the grounds of exact investigation, 

 holding fast to the fundamental principle that it is from physical 

 laws alone we must deduce a true explanation, and that by induc- 

 tion only can we investigate the causal connexion of vital pheno- 

 mena, no further proof need be adduced of the truth of our 

 assertion that physiological chemistry occupies the highest place 

 among the sciences auxiliary to medicine. Even those who deem 

 special forces and special laws necessary to the explanation of vital 

 phenomena must admit that chemical methods are the most 

 important for the investigation of these actions, and for the solution 

 of such questions, if, as indeed cannot be denied, it is only by a 

 thorough investigation of the physical forces acting in the living 

 body that we can become acquainted with a true vital force or vital 

 law. With those who judge of vital forces by subjective feelings, 

 and would stamp nature with the impress of their own ideas, we 

 will not contest the point of view we have adopted; but leave 

 them to regard chemistry, like physics and anatomy, as a mere 

 auxiliary towards an adequate appreciation and contemplation of 

 nature. 



It now only remains for us to add a few words on the relation 

 of pathological to physiological chemistry. Neither from a theo- 

 retical nor a practical point of view can we concur in the assertion 

 that pathological chemistry is separate and different from physi- 

 ological chemistry. Experience shows us the impracticability of 



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