PHYSIOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF DISEASE 



PREVIOUS lectures in this course have doubtless 

 made clear to you how the study of physiology, of 

 the human body in action, is the basis of all our 

 knowledge of practical hygiene the means of 

 keeping healthy. 



To-day I wish to show you that it is also the 

 basis of all our study of disease, for disease is 

 simply normal or physiological action gone wrong. 

 What the physician has to find out in every case 

 is simply what has gone wrong, and why it has gone 

 wrong, before he attempts to put it right. 



I think that one of the great mistakes in the past 

 has been to study disease without this constant 

 reference to the normal physiological condition. 

 The tendency has been to group a collection of 

 symptoms together and to name it as a disease 

 without full consideration of what the symptoms 

 mean in terms of normal action, or of how they are 

 produced. As a result of this the practitioner of 

 medicine is too frequently content when he has 

 observed the symptoms and given a name to the 

 condition : too seldom does he force himself to 



77 



