TRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 155 



examination has been made, and the sanitary 

 department ought to keep the results obtained in 

 cases where such examination has taken place, 

 completely separate from the comparatively worth- 

 less returns of cases in which there has been none. 



Moreover, when it is considered what pains are 

 taken to secure accurate returns of causes of death 

 in the army, and when it is remembered what a 

 very large number of the practitioners engaged in 

 civil practice hold appointments in a great variety 

 of public institutions, one would think that it only 

 required a proper knowledge of the issues at stake 

 to rouse the public to the consideration of its own 

 safety, and to extend in some measure military 

 methods to civil practice, so as to develop a more 

 thorough knowledge of their profession among all 

 ranks of medical men, and save the lives of rich 

 and poor. 



I desire to use this opportunity to say one word 

 about pathological museums. They are the means 

 of furnishing permanent and accessible records of 

 remarkable phenomena, and are even more useful 

 in affording comparison of different stages and 

 varieties of disease one with another. There are 

 no doubt certain matters connected with the general 

 appearance of morbid textures which are better 

 observed in the recent condition ; but there is much 



