4 i8 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



the fluids of the body, and be felt wherever these fluids, 

 or such part of them as is affected, penetrate ; if it 

 involves the nervous system it is felt generally, or locally, 

 according to which of its textures or enclosing elements 

 happens to be implicated ; if it affects a viscus, or organ, 

 it is felt throughout that viscus or organ, and within the 

 radius of neighbouring parts included in its range of 

 influence ; or if it affects an organic structure only, then 

 it is realised only within the confines of that organic 

 structure, or, at the most, within a very limited area. This 

 being so, we need scarcely say that the scientific and prac- 

 tical bearings of the subject will more and more obtrude 

 themselves on our notice, and we feel ourselves constrained 

 to insist that too much importance can scarcely be claimed 

 for it, as it clearly appears that it must affect alike the 

 work of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease, 

 which is the raison d'etre of one of the greatest professions, 

 as well as the progress of scientific research, as it affects 

 the destiny and well-being of man. 



Disturbed physical equilibrium necessitates, for its 

 development and decline, "a full swing of the pendulum," 

 so to speak, in whatever sphere of the organism it may be 

 met, and he who recognises the part or portion of the arc 

 of the circle involved in the particular swing, will be best 

 able to predict when that swing will terminate, with what 

 diminishing proportions the succeeding swing, or swings, 

 will be characterised, the time at which equilibrium will 

 be re-attained, and the measures, if any, to be adopted to 

 hasten, or secure, its re-attainment ; all which is, necessarily 

 of course, merely figurative, but we think capable of 

 translation into actuality with the exercise of that alert 

 intelligence, which is so abundantly displayed throughout 

 the world of medicine and surgery. 



Equilibration in matters of disease, as here foreshadowed, 

 should, therefore, to our way of thinking, become a goal 

 for the practical worker in these spheres to reach, and 

 should repay the exercise of much clinical thought 

 and effort, and keep within more scientific lines the 

 endeavours to meet the requirements of the practisers of 

 the healing art, as servants of the public, and for the 

 satisfaction of their own amour propre. 



