1 6 ENDOCRINE THERAPEUTICS 



Professor Pawlow says : " The world of patho- 

 logical phenomena is nothing but an endless 

 series of the most different and unusual com- 

 binations of physiological occurrences, which 

 never make their appearance in the normal course 

 of life. It is the interlinking of events the like 

 of which could never enter into the mind of the 

 present-day physiologists." 



These are the puzzles we have got to solve, 

 the entanglements we have to untie. 



The therapeutist of fifty years ago had to work 

 largely by faith and not by sight. He had very 

 little sure ground to stand on, and naturally his 

 results were very uncertain. It is said of Sir 

 William Gull, after a hard morning's work in his 

 consulting- room, that his final soliloquy was, 

 " To think of all these people coming to see me, 

 when the only things certain in medicine are the 

 actions of castor oil and ipecacuanha ! " 



This wave of scepticism no doubt swept away 

 a lot of useless rubbish, but in itself it was only 

 a negation and the old proverb " Ex nihilo nihil 

 fit " was as true as ever. Then followed careful 

 study of the natural history of disease, mostly 

 uncomplicated by medicine. One may say, 

 justly, I think, that in London there was no 

 scientific teaching in medicinal treatment till 



