456 
ON MYoITIS. 
of the man hence, wherever erroneous doctrines have been ex- 
tensively taught, it will take very much time to remove them and 
replace them by others of a better character. For example, half a 
century since, and all, gentle as well as simple, referred the seat of 
every doubtful case of lameness in the fore limb of a horse to the 
shoulder ; and though it is not so now in and around the metro- 
polis or with the reading public, yet in the remoter districts it is 
but little diminished. Now-a-day, the seat of every doubtful 
lameness in the fore limb is the foot ; thus going from one extreme 
to the other. This brings to my recollection a remark of Martin 
Luther, the reformer, who compared the minds of men “ to a 
drunken man on horseback, who, when he rolled to the one side, 
in the endeavour to sit upright rolled over to the other,” never 
being able to hit the happy mean. Thus fashion or custom has 
reeled from “ shoulder” to “ foot” — (the ordinary proportion of the 
occurrence of disease in each has never, as far as I know, been 
fairly inquired into); and, strange to say, the important parts 
situate between these two extreme points have been left almost 
entirely out of the inquiry. The happy mean has never been 
attained. 
I do not mean to assert that the foot is not the frequent seat of 
morbid action ; neither do I for an instant seek to throw dispa- 
ragement on the labours of those who have investigated the dis- 
eases and maladies of the foot ; on the other hand, I should be 
ready to support, if it were requisite ; but what I complain of is, 
that every thing is in extreme, and other parts, which may be and 
are frequently the seat of morbific action, are unattended to. 
Now, a great error is constantly being committed : a malady is 
spoken of as of rare occurrence, and immediately it ceases to 
attract notice ; yet, in truth, it is more requisite to inquire into 
rarities than commonalities, because the latter are sure to be well 
known from their frequency ; but the former must be borne in 
mind, and in mind only ; for though it may not happen once in a 
thousand cases, who can say which number in the thousand will 
be the exception 'l It is the knowledge of specialities which con- 
stitutes the difference between the skilful or scientific and common 
routine practitioner, whether it be in law or medicine ; and we 
must not forget the axiom, that every symptom has a cause, and 
that every cause has its appropriate symptom. 
The symptoms are the alphabet of the science, and the union of 
symptoms constitutes disease ; but sometimes, though rarely, a 
single symptom will indicate a disease. 
Now, all that can be taught in the schools are the symptoms or 
alphabet, and their combinations into diseases, or orthography. 
The causes, or syntax, and the rudiments of therapeutics, which 
