XIIL] THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE. 325 



XIII. 



THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL 

 SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE. 



THE great body of theoretical and practical knowledge 

 which has been accumulated by the labours of some 

 eighty generations, since the dawn of scientific thought 

 in Europe, has no collective English name to which 

 an objection may not be raised ; and I use the term 

 1 'medicine" as that which is least likely to be mis- 

 understood ; though, as every one knows, the name is 

 commonly applied, in a narrower sense, to one of the 

 chief divisions of the totality of medical science. 



Taken in this broad sense, " medicine " not merely 

 denotes a kind of knowledge, but it comprehends the 

 various applications of that knowledge to the allevia- 

 tion of the sufferings, the repair of the injuries, and 

 the conservation of the health, of living beings. In 

 fact, the practical aspect of medicine so far dominates 

 over every other, that the " Healing Art " is one of 

 its most widely-received synonyms. It is so difficult 

 to think of medicine otherwise than as something 

 which is necessarily connected with curative treat- 

 ment, that we are apt to forget that there must be, 



