THE EXACTNESS OF THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE. 766 



At this point we afifirm that any department of knowledge whose facts and 

 principles admit of classification and are subjects of proof may be properly termed 

 an exact science. By a little reflection it will be seen that all this is eminently true 

 of medicine. Its classification may be correctly stated as follows : 



I. That department of our profession relating to the present status of 

 knowledge bearing on the possibility of a sufficiently accurate determination of 

 pathological conditions and the appHcation of remedies that will bring the de- 

 sired cure. This is the stand point of our subject from which come so many 

 evils to the people and much disrepute to our calling. The land is burdened 

 with numberless men and women who possess all the needed legal rights to prey 

 upon the credulous public with a pretense of knowledge they do not possess. 

 A show of professional deportment and a display of office equipments often do 

 much to obliterate the vast distance between the soulless quack and the hard 

 working student. And it may be a long time before the people will be able to 

 make a wise selection from thoae who offer their services as medical experts. And 

 yet it is a truth beyond a doubt that the aggregate of medical knowledge, now 

 well formulated and within the grasp of every faithful student, is worthy of our 

 highest confidence. I confidently affirm that the want of exactness exists in the 

 brain of him who asserts it, and I also believe that the educated physician may 

 undertake the task of pointing out the exact disease and its exact remedy with 

 the assurance of one standing upon a rock. The well determined rfiles of diag- 

 nosis never fail him. His well-selected remedies do their work with a prompt- 

 ness and accuracy near to perfection. The fact that much that was supposed to 

 be settled beyond a doubt, in the ages past, has been abandoned as weak and 

 perhaps harmful, is just what we might anticipate under the light of improved 

 facilities and innumerable investigations. The wholesome laws of most of the 

 States, together with the wish of the friends of the dead put within our reach 

 ample means to obtain every variety oi post mortem knowledge. 



2. The second classification of our subject brings us to surgery. No one 

 learned in its present literature will hesitate for a moment in according to this 

 branch the well-earned eminence of being both a science and an art. I grant 

 a good degree of reputation may be reached here and yet the surgeon may not 

 possess all the high traits of judgment needed in some other department of our 

 calling. He always has the advantage of an over-estimate on the part of the laity. 

 He gets the credit of possessing that wonderful something supposed to culminate 

 in but few mortals, making him a surgeon when he may in fact deserve but the 

 credit of a skillful mechanic. The anatomy of every part of the human body is so 

 thoroughly a matter of memory that any desired operation can be performed by 

 any one possessing good mechanical talent. But these primary facts do not con- 

 stitute the whole of surgery. That which makes a surgeon useful in the presence 

 of injuries, deformities, and pathological conditions, is his ability to recognize the 

 trouble needing his aid. And it is a pleasure to be able to assert that he is not 

 left to blindly guess his way in the direction of his movements. The locality of 

 pain or swelling, the presence or absence of the characteristic phlegmasia, the 



