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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 417. 



corded endeavor— and a mighty endeavor 

 it was— to break away from the empiricism 

 of the earlier ages. But the science of the 

 time was meager, and, however laudable 

 the aim, the liippocratic writings are full 

 of empirical notions. From that time on, 

 down through the ages, we find science 

 and empiricism, like the good and bad 

 principles in all natures and all religions, 

 ever contending. And the struggle still 

 continues. As Eichard Hooker Avrote more 

 than three hiindred years ago, so to-day do 

 'Empirics learn physic by killing of the 

 sick.' The empiricism of to-day is not 

 solely the method of osteopaths, christian 

 scientists, and vendors of patent nostrums ; 

 it is found in the schools and the practice 

 of legitimate medicine. At times it has 

 surprising successes; but the struggle is 

 an unequal one, and science is sure to be 

 victorious. At no period of the world's 

 history has the scientific idea in medicine 

 been so aggressive and advanced so rapidly 

 as during the past fifty years, and at no 

 time has it seemed nearer its ultimate vic- 

 tory than at this beginning of the twen- 

 tieth century. This advance is so striking 

 and so full of general interest that I have 

 ventured to choose it as my subject to-day, 

 under the title of 'The Scientific Aspect 

 of Modern Medicine.' 



The Idea of a Vital Force. — One of the 

 most essential prerequisites of this advance 

 was the complete and final liberation of 

 medical science, and of all those sciences 

 now comprehended imder the general title 

 of biology, from a burden which in one 

 form or another had hampered progress 

 from the earliest times. I mean the con- 

 ception that living bodies possess within 

 themselves an active force or principle, dif- 

 fering in nature from anything possessed 

 by non-living bodies, and which represents 

 the vitality of living things. The begin.- 

 nings of this idea are found in the various 

 forms of animism of savage races, accord- 



ing to which a spirit or ghost inhabits the 

 body and is responsible for its actions. In 

 diseased states, this good spirit is dis- 

 possessed by an evil one. In one form or 

 another this belief is met with among all 

 civilized peoples. It is found in the days 

 of Salem witchcraft, and even as late as 

 1788, in Bristol, England, when seven 

 devils were exorcised from an epileptic. 

 In physiology, from the times of the early 

 Greek medicine until after the Renais- 

 sance, the animistic idea is represented by 

 the doctrine of the pneuma, or the ' spirits. ' 

 In Hippocratic times the spirits entered 

 the body through the lungs, were carried 

 by the blood to all parts, and enabled the 

 vital actions to take place. At aboiit 300 

 B.C., the Alexandrians found it convenient 

 to make use of two forms of this mysterious 

 agent, the 'vital spirits' residing in the 

 heart, and the ' animal spirits ' in the brain. 

 To these, in the second century of the 

 Christian era, Galen added a third, the 

 'natural spirits,' located in the liver. 



AU physicians of the present day are 

 familiar with the remarkable story of 

 Galen and his long reign in medicine. 

 Born in the time of the emperor Hadrian, 

 he lived an active life of medical research 

 and practice. He was the imperial physi- 

 cian of Rome, and while the wise Marcus 

 Aurelius was writing his 'Meditations,' 

 Galen was producing his numerous med- 

 ical books. These covered the whole field 

 of the medicine of his time, much of which 

 was the direct result of his own investiga- 

 tions. His activity was unparalleled, his 

 knowledge immense, his logic and literary 

 skill pronounced, and his system of medi- 

 cine all-embracing. In these respects he 

 VN'as far above his contemporaries, and 

 with the decline of the Roman civilization, 

 the consequent disappearance of origin- 

 ality of thought, and the long unbroken 

 sleep of research, what wonder is it that 



