30 ESSAYS ON BACTERIOLOGY. 



tion, and, as practicing pliysicians, not forget the facts- 

 of clinical experience. 



I have not in this paper discussed nor raised the 

 question of the truth or falsity of the germ theory of 

 disease, nor entered further than was necessary into 

 the details and technicalities of bacteriology. I have 

 purposely avoided these things in order that I might 

 insist upon the idea that they are of secondary inter- 

 est. Bacteriology is a study of pathology and the 

 causation of disease, and of the problems which gather 

 about these two great fields in medicine. It is only 

 as we thus think of it that we shall be able to under- 

 stand what it is and what it means. 



Though we are, and must be first of all, practition- 

 ers of medicine, it is well for us now and then to stop 

 and think what some of these things mean and where 

 we stand upon some of the great problems which are 

 arising in our profession; to think whence we have 

 come, and why, and whither we are going. Surely, 

 if we preserve our balance aright, it need not make us 

 less eflicient actors if we keep ourselves somewhat in 

 touch with the world of theory and of thought. 



If this discussion shall have succeeded in some de- 

 gree in throwing the laboratory, the microscope and 

 the mere details of bacteriology into the background, 

 and in placing in deserved prominence some of those 

 living problems which should most interest the intelli- 

 gent physician, should attract his attention, enlist hia 

 sympathy and engage his thought, its object will have 

 been accomplished. 



