150 ZYRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 
what happens when verification of diagnosis is 
neglected. Let us try to trace the history of a 
medical career in which this fault is committed. A 
graduate has been accustomed in his studies to 
have series of cases brought before his notice, of 
which the most prominently impressed on him have 
got well, and have seemed thereby to show that the 
evil had been accurately recognized and successfully 
combated. Others, likewise distinctly remembered, 
have got worse and worse, till they have ended 
fatally ; and in those cases a proper investigation 
afterwards has taught numerous lessons which 
could not fail to impress the thoughtful observer. 
And if, besides all those, there have been, as there 
must be, numerous other cases which have not been 
rounded off to a dramatic conclusion of success or 
tragic close, but have lingered on in an unsatisfac- 
tory way, or disappeared from observation none the 
better ; the exigencies of teaching, apart from the 
operation of any subtle and unconscious instinct of 
human nature in the mind of the teacher, tend 
often to throw such cases into the background, while 
their absence of sensational interest leads the 
student to leave them there to be forgotten. The 
eraduate passes, as many of you are about to do, 
into general practice on his own account. Then 
how great is the change! The acute cases which 
