THE PRESENT ASrECT OF MEDICINE. 345 



amount of prolongation of life, recovery from disease, and 

 alleviation of bodily suffering, which our art has heretofore 

 effected, have been so by the empirical or conscious applica- 

 tion of physiological means ; so, in the third place, the 

 present position of physiology presents a satisfactory prospect 

 of attaining the possession of a greatly-increased number of 

 means and appliances, suitable for the supply and control of 

 the numerous conditions essential to the preservation of 

 health and to the recovery from disease. 



How essential, then, must it be in the practice of our 

 profession to possess a clear and comprehensive conception 

 of those natural arrangements by which human life is con- 

 ditioned and modified ! How vague and limited are our 

 conceptions of these arrangements apt to be ! We look for 

 them in the dissecting-room and pathological theatre, and 

 forget that their most influential elements lie beyond the 

 reach of the knife or the penetration of the microscope. Even 

 when compelled by circumstances to take into consideration 

 the reciprocal influences of the conscious principle and the 

 bodily frame, we are inclined to consider it as a necessary 

 intrusion into another domain — a domain which may adjoin 

 but does not form a part of our own. Nevertheless, within 

 that adjoining domain processes are more or less continuously 

 in operation, influenced by and influencing the corporeal 

 actions. It is true that, from our human and therefore 

 limited intellectual constitution, we are obliged to examine 

 and investigate the processes of our bodily frame and of our 

 conscious principle through separate media. Our human 

 reason reaches, examines, and investigates the processes of 

 our material frame through the medium of the senses, as it 

 reaches, examines, and investigates the forms and movements 

 of the heavenly bodies. That same human reason examines 

 and Investigates the processes and acts of our conscious 

 principle through the medium of thai principle itself, of 



