TRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 141 



treatment of disease ; and I do not doubt that you 

 have all learned a great number of details of treat- 

 ment which you will use to the advantage of 

 patients yet unborn, as well as others, it is to be 

 hoped. But remember that the changes which 

 take place in treatment are perpetual, and that 

 there is nothing reliable in any treatment which 

 is not based on science. 



The jeers of Le Sage and Moliere, and many a 

 sneer of later date, have been only too well founded ; 

 and if there be truth, as truth there is, in the 

 vaunted progress of medicine and surgery in recent 

 years, that progress is entirely owing to two closely 

 connected causes, namely first, the enormous ad- 

 vances that have been made in chemistry, natural 

 history, anatomy, and physiology ; and, secondly, 

 that the practitioner, prepared by the study of 

 these sciences, has applied their methods in his 

 own special studies, has founded a science of path- 

 ology, and learned what accuracy of observation 

 means in clinical research. It is then the methods 

 learned in your scientific studies which those of you 

 who aim at reaching the first rank in our profession 

 will find the most useful part of your education, as 

 you woo Nature for her hidden treasures all your 

 lives. This lotion and that operation, O young 

 surgeons ; this plaister and that panacea, most 



