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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 110. 



branches of science, e.g., in physics or in 

 geology. 



Evidently scientific medicine must be 

 founded upon an exact knowledge of the 

 structure (anatomy) and functions (physi- 

 ology) of the human body in a healthy con- 

 dition and of the changes in structure and 

 function (pathology) which result from va- 

 rious disease processes ; of the causes (eti- 

 ology) natural history (clinical medicine) 

 and regional distribution (medical geo- 

 graphy) of the diseases which aflfllict man- 

 kind and the lower animals (comparative 

 pathology) ; of the toxic action of various 

 substances from the animal and vegetable 

 kingdom (toxicology) and of the use of 

 these and of other nontoxic substances, phys- 

 ical agents, etc., in the treatment of dis- 

 ease (therapeutics) . For the illiterate and 

 even for many of the so-called educated 

 class the whole of medicine consists in the 

 cure of disease by medicines, or by some 

 agency, natural or supernatural, and a fail- 

 ure to cure is evidence that medicine is not 

 a science. We readily admit that the cure 

 of disease is one of the principal objects 

 which medical science has in view and that 

 from a scientific standpoint therapeutics is 

 very much behind some of the other 

 branches of medicine. This is shown by 

 the diversity of remedies prescribed for cer- 

 tain diseases and the failure of any one of 

 these remedies to eifect a cure in many cases. 

 But, on the other hand, therapeutics has 

 made great advances during recent years 

 and by the application of scientific methods 

 of research the exact value of alleged reme- 

 dies and of various methods of treatment is 

 now determined with far greater precision 

 than formerly. 



A few years ago the intelligent and honest 

 physician did not claim to have any con- 

 siderable number of specific remedies at his 

 command ; but his scientific knowledge re- 

 lating to the cause, symptoms and pathology 

 of disease enabled him to conduct many 



cases to a successful termination which 

 without his assistance would have proved 

 fatal. By the use of scientific instruments 

 and methods of investigation he was able 

 to make an early diagnosis and to give ad- 

 vice which might stay the progress of a 

 disease which in its more advanced stages 

 it would have been beyond his skill to 

 arrest. Kecently several additions have 

 been made to the list of specific therapeutic 

 agents and there is good reason to believe 

 that further discoveries in this direction 

 will be made as a result of investigations 

 now being conducted in pathological labora- 

 tories in various parts of the world. Among 

 the most important recent discoveries in 

 this department of scientific medicine we 

 may mention the use of thyroid extract for 

 the cure of myxoedema, the antitoxin of 

 diphtheria and the antitoxin of tetanus. 

 The wonderful triumphs of modern surgery, 

 the scientific precision of the methods em- 

 ployed by the skilled ophthalmologist and 

 the achievements of the scientific obstetri- 

 cian can only be referred to en passant in 

 support of the statement that we are to- 

 day justified in speaking of medicine as a 

 science. 



While, as we have said, the cure of dis- 

 ease is one of the principal objects which 

 medical science has in view, this is by no 

 means the sole object. Sanitary science is 

 a branch of medicine based upon chemical 

 and physiological knowledge which has been 

 gained by the painstaking researches of a 

 host of investigators who have determined 

 the constituent elements of the air we 

 breathe, the water we drink, the food we 

 eat, and the nature of the harmful impuri- 

 ties which are found in these ; it teaches us 

 the difference between healthful indulgence 

 in food, exercise, mental activity, etc., and 

 those excesses which lower the vital resist- 

 ing power and establish a predisposition to 

 disease. Preventive medicine, which is a 

 broader term, if we regard the beneficent 



