CELLULAR PATHOLOGY. 4.3 



undergoing, inconsequence of certain external or internal 

 influences, certain changes confined to their own limits, 

 and not necessarily participated in by the cells immedi- 

 ately adjoining. 



That which I have now laid before you will be suffi- 

 cient to show you in what way I consider it necessary to 

 trace pathological facts to their origin in known histolo- 

 gical elements ; why, for example, I am not satisfied 

 with talking about an action of the vessels, or an action 

 of the nerves, but why I consider it necessary to bestow 

 attention upon the great number of minute parts which 

 really constitute the chief mass of the substance of the 

 body, as well as upon the vessels and nerves. It is not 

 enough that, as has for a long time been the case, the 

 muscles should be singled out as being the only active 

 elements ; within the great remainder, which is generally 

 regarded as an inert mass, there is in addition an enor- 

 mous number of active parts to be met with. 



Amid the development which medicine has undergone 

 up to the present time, we find the dispute between the 

 humoral and solidistic schools of olden times still main- 

 tained. The humoral schools have generally had the 

 greatest success, because they have offered the most con- 

 venient explanation, and, in fact, the most plausible 

 interpretation of morbid processes. We may say that 

 nearly all successful practical, and noted hospital, physi- 

 cians have had more or less humoro-pathological tenden- 

 cies ; aye, and these have become so popular, that it is 

 extremely difficult for any physician to free himself from 

 them. The solido-pathological views have been rather 

 the hobby of speculative inquirers, and have had their 

 origin not so much in the immediate requirements of 

 pathology, as in physiological and philosophical, and 

 even in religious speculations. They have been forced 

 to do violence to facts, both in anatomy and physiology, 



