TRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 185 
examination has been made, and the sanitary 
department ought to keep the results obtained in 
cases where such examination has taken place, 
completely separate from the comparatively worth- - 
less returns of cases in which there has been none. 
Moreover, when it is considered what pains are 
taken to secure accurate returns of causes of death 
in the army, and when it is remembered what a 
very large number of the practitioners engaged in 
civil practice hold appointments in a great variety 
of public institutions, one would think that it only 
required a proper knowledge of the issues at stake 
to rouse the public to the consideration of its own 
safety, and to extend in some measure military 
methods to civil practice, so as to develop a more 
thorough knowledge of their profession among all 
ranks of medical men, and save the lives of rich 
and poor. 
I desire to use this opportunity to say one word 
about pathological museums. They are the means 
of furnishing permanent and accessible records of 
remarkable phenomena, and are even more useful 
in affording comparison of different stages and 
varieties of disease one with another. There are 
no doubt certain matters connected with the general 
appearance of morbid textures which are better 
observed in the recent condition ; but there is much 
