THE PRESENT ASPECT OF MEDICINE. 343 



profession is this — Under what conditions can the health of 

 individuals be preserved and developed, so that life may 

 reach its maximum in the present state of society ? This is 

 the question of individual and public hygiene. It was the 

 leading question in ancient physic ; and it is one which, 

 although much has been said and done regarding it in recent 

 times, has not, it may be safely asserted, had that attention 

 paid to it which its importance demands. We are too apt to 

 postpone the answer to a question so comprehensive as this, 

 and to devote our attention to individual cases of disease. 

 We are apt to forget that the cases of disease which we treat 

 might never have occurred had the previous question been 

 solved, and that it is as much the duty of the physician to 

 communicate the conditions on which disease may be 

 prevented as those on which it may be recovered from. The 

 importance of this question, its comprehensiveness, and at 

 the same time its legitimate character, as within the limits of 

 admitted inquiry and action, can only be appreciated by 

 those who have studied that complex system of intimately 

 connected conditions — moral, psychological, and physical — 

 on which human life depends. 



In the second place, it may be asked, What amount of 

 recovery from disease is due to the advising or providing the 

 necessary conditions of it by practitioners of our art ? I may 

 venture to suggest that a greater amount of recovery is due 

 to treatment than the profession itself might be inclined to 

 admit, It is quite true that little credit is assigned to the 

 vis medicatrix naturce in a successful case of stone. But, on 

 the other hand, is there not frequently too little credit 

 attached to the continuous attention required in securing 

 the administration of the numerous apparently trifling but 

 complex and necessary conditions of recovery in a case of 

 continued fever? Without doubt it will be found that, in 

 a more advanced form of practical medicine, a much more 



