340 THE PEESENT ASPECT OF MEDICINE. 



medicine. It forces itself on the attention of the observant 

 student in every department of history. It is seen to be an 

 invariable feature in the progress of art, science, and philo- 

 sophy. Moreover, it always induces, sooner or later, its own 

 correction, and will do so in medicine. The more clearly and 

 comprehensively we grasp the conception of disease as being 

 merely a physiological state, so much the more firm and 

 uniform will be our confidence in the efficacy of physiological 

 means for restoring health, and our conviction that these 

 means alone constitute the conditions of relief and recovery 

 from disease. The most obstinate sceptic in the efficacy 

 of our heterogeneous materia medica prescribes morphine, 

 quinine, strychnine, belladonna, hyoscyamus, and chloroform, 

 with the most implicit confidence in the production of the 

 physiological effect proper to each of these substances. The 

 firmest adherent of the expectant method of treatment does 

 not scruple for a moment to provide for his patient all 

 those conditions of atmosphere, temperature, sleep, nutriment, 

 and consolation, the efficacy of which cannot be called in 

 doubt. 



Why is it, then, that while physiology is making rapid 

 progress, and our knowledge of the physiological character of 

 disease has already attained a tangible form, we are still 

 wavering and undecided in the treatment of disease, and that 

 we present, in reference to it, either a reserved formality or 

 the opposite extremes of mystical credulity and absolute 

 scepticism ? 



I believe you will agree with me in ascribing the state of 

 feeling to which I have just alluded to the unconscious 

 tendency to consider any given remedial agent or measure 

 too much as acting on any given disease as a whole, instead 

 of viewing it as acting invariably on one or more of those 

 disharmonised conditions which, in fact, constitute the 

 disease. For it must here be borne in mind that the recent 



