202 ON THOUGHT IN MEDICINE. 



physician, of understanding the literature of his science 

 and the direction as well as the conditions of its 

 progress, there was in my case a special incentive. In 

 my first professorship at Konigsberg, from the year 

 1849 to 1856, I had to lecture each winter on general 

 pathology that is, on that part of the subject which 

 contains the general theoretical conceptions of /'the 

 nature of disease, and of the principles of its treatment. 



General pathology was regarded by our elders as 

 the fairest blossom of medical science. But in fact, 

 that which formed its essence possesses only historical 

 interest for the disciples of modern natural science. 



Many of my predecessors have broken a lance for 

 the scientific defence of this essence, and more especially 

 Henle and Lotz. The latter, whose starting-point was 

 also medicine, had, in his general pathology and thera- 

 peutics, arranged it very thoroughly and methodically 

 and with great critical acumen. 



My own original inclination was towards physics ; 

 external circumstances compelled me to commence the 

 study of medicine, which was made possible to me by 

 the liberal arrangements of this Institution. It had, 

 however, been the custom of a former time to combine 

 the study of medicine with that of the Natural Sciences, 

 and whatever in this was compulsory I must consider 

 fortunate ; not merely that I entered medicine at a 

 time in which any one who was even moderately at 



