28 LECTURE I. 



such a way as to couple histology with pathology ; and 

 for this reason, that I thought I must take it for granted 

 that many busily occupied physicians were not quite 

 familiar with the most recent histological changes, and did 

 not enjoy sufficiently frequent opportunities of examining 

 microscopical objects for themselves. Inasmuch as, how- 

 ever, it is upon such examinations that the most import- 

 ant conclusions are grounded which we now draw, you 

 will pardon me if, disregarding those among you who 

 have a perfect acquaintance with the subject, I behave 

 just as if you all were not completely familiar with the 

 requisite preliminary knowledge. 



The present reform in medicine, of which you have all 

 been witnesses, essentially had its rise in new anatomical 

 observations, and the exposition also, which I have to 

 make to you, will therefore principally be based upon 

 anatomical demonstrations. But for me it would not be 

 sufficient to take, as has been the custom during the last 

 ten years, pathological anatomy alone as the groundwork 

 of my views ; we must add thereto those facts of general 

 anatomy also, to which the actual state of medical science 

 is due. The history of medicine teaches us, if we will 

 only take a somewhat comprehensive survey of it, that 

 at all times permanent advances have been marked by 

 anatomical innovations, and that every more important 

 epoch has been directly ushered in by a series of import- 

 ant discoveries concerning the structure of the body. So 

 it was in those old times, when the observations of the 

 Alexandrian school, based for the first time upon the 

 anatomy of man, prepared the way for the system of 

 Galen ; so it was, too, in the Middle Ages, when Yesa- 

 lius laid the foundations of anatomy, and therewith be- 

 gan the real reformation of medicine ; so, lastly, was it 

 at the commencement of this century, when Bichat deve- 

 loped the principles of general anatomy. What Schwann 



