1922.] Indian Science Congress, I.8.C. 127 
universal credence, and the nervous system was still regarded 
as the controlling factor in the various manifestations of 
disease. The clinical medicine of the time was comparatively 
simple. The arts of auscultation and percussion, recently dis- 
covered, had not yet come into general use. The fevers, with 
the exception of malaria and those which showed the character- 
istic eruptions, were as yet undifferentiated and included 
many diseases not known to have an entirely different etiology. 
Thus cholera was considered primarily a disease of the nervous 
system. One early writer indeed refers to concussion of the 
brain as the “ lethi fabricator” of the disease, the purging and 
vomiting being regarded merely as sanitary processes. 
rom the point of view of treatment all diseases belonged 
to one of two types, the sthenic and asthenic. It was only 
necessary for the physician to make up his mind-which of the 
two he had to deal with to apply the treatment considered 
appropriate to the occasion, depletion for the one, stimulation 
for the other. When we read of the lengths to which this 
treatment was carried we can well understand the feelings which 
prompted Stokes to say, ‘‘ Oh! that men would stoop to learn 
or at least cease to destroy !2’ : : 
icroscope as yet played no active part in medical 
investigation. Its existence was however well known and there 
was much speculation as to the true relationship of micro- 
organisms to disease. In fact Plenciz in Vienna had, as early 
as 1762, enunciated what in effect was “the germ theory of 
disease.”” The Hippocratic theory of the causation of epi- 
besides the aie still held the field. The exact nature of os 
harmful element was undetermined and was vaguely referre 
