EXTRACT IV. 



ON THE POPULAR TERM "SICKNESS," AND THE 

 CLASSICAL PHRASE "SICK UNTO DEATH." 



THAT the term "sickness" contains a "world of mean- 

 ing" the human family and all animated nature, at least 

 the most highly organised division of it, fully appreciate, 

 and, stimulated by that appreciation and the fear of what 

 is to follow it, have endeavoured, and are still endeavour- 

 ing, to find out means whereby it may be mitigated or 

 prevented. In virtue of this continued endeavour, 

 medical science and art have been called into being, and, 

 sustained by the clamancy of the appeal, the individual 

 observations and experiences of succeeding generations 

 have been taken note of and systematised by the pre- 

 decessors and followers of ^Esculapius, and a more or less 

 scientific body of teaching deduced as the solid ground 

 of fact has been touched from time to time until now, 

 when medicine and surgery have reached a stage of 

 development that libraries are required to contain their 

 mere literature. 



In the stage at which we now find it, we see arising a 

 belief in the truth of the necessity of means being used, 

 whenever and wherever possible, of preventing the exist- 

 ence of disease and its accompanying sickness, and thus 

 of allowing life to continue and be enjoyed as long as it 

 is possible for the individual organism to survive the 

 natural wear and tear of life, or, in other words, the 

 "natural term of existence." Along this line it seems 

 reasonable to expect that the human race may reach, if 

 not Utopia, at least the goal of the greatest happiness 



