312 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



clay in the newspapers articles and letters of 

 remarkable merit on the all-engrossing subject 

 of this epizootia. The re-opening of the 

 medical colleges furnished the skilful pro- 

 fessors at their head with a seasonable oppor- 

 tunity to consider this dire distemper, ac- 

 cording to the views of general pathology and 

 medical philosophy, and this they have done 

 with unquestionable talent and ability. Still, 

 something remains to be said on this im- 

 portant matter, and since I have taken up my 

 pen, like others, I wish to mingle my voice 

 with that of my brethren, and inquire whether 

 the time is not come to avail ourselves more 

 fully than we have done yet of the grand dis- 

 coveries of the exact sciences, which, with re- 

 spect to the science of medicine, are the instru- 

 ments of its progress. And my object in doing 

 so, is, that we may, as far as possible, rise to a 

 level with the ordeal which the future may 

 have in store for us. 



Medicine is at once an art and a science. 

 An art it has been at all times, and in every age 

 of civilized man ; but it became a science only 

 when human knowledge had acquired a certain 

 expansion ; when natural phenomena had been 



