THE PRESENT ASPECT OF MEDICINE. 337 



point of view by different individual minds ; — moreover, as the 

 advancement of science and of art is the result of effort and 

 opinions apparently divergent as often as convergent in their 

 effect, much benefit may be expected from the periodic review 

 by different minds of any important subject or department 

 of knowledge. I am therefore hopeful that, in undertaking 

 my share of this periodic duty, and in attempting to review 

 the present state of medicine, and to direct your attention to 

 its future prospects, I may do so the more effectively that, 

 although originally trained to the practice of our profession, 

 I have now withdrawn from practice ; for thus, with all my 

 practical instincts unaltered, I view our profession from 

 without as it were, with, I confess, ever-increasing interest, 

 but entirely through the medium of those physiological 

 sciences to which I am devoted, and under the guidance of 

 those modes of thought which I may be permitted, 

 without incurring the charge of pedantry, to uphold as the 

 basis of all effective and comprehensive inquiry, and which, 

 as the results of early education, I have ever thankfully 

 cherished. 



A few weeks ago a member of this Society, than whom 

 the history of medicine records none who have been more 

 successful in the suggestion and establishment of new 

 methods for the relief of or recovery from disease, asked me 

 what I thought would be the next great advance made in 

 physic? In reference to what was thus asked of me, I 

 believe you will agree with me when I assert that every 

 decided advance made in the prolongation of the average 

 duration of human life has been mediately or immediately 

 the result of clear conceptions in reference to the conditions 

 under winch human life is maintained. There can be no 

 doubt whatever that the average duration of human life has 

 been much more extended by the preventive methods which 

 the instinct of man and physiological science have induced 



