730 
E. .L. QUITMAN. 
tigations to the detection and elimination of existing errors, and 
to the verification of all practical deductions by actual tests 
either in the laboratory or in the clinic room. 
For example, it is not enough that you know a microbe or a 
ptomaine may produce a certain disease ; you should be able to 
follow the germ from its point of entrance into the system to its 
exit or destruction. It is not sufficient that you know the symp¬ 
toms of a disease ; you should be able to see clearly the actual 
morbid process which takes place through all the different 
phases of that disease. Neither is it enough that you should 
know that one remedial agent may act as a cathartic, another 
as a diruetic, and another as an antipyretic, but you should know 
whether the first produces its effects by increasing secretion 
from the mucous membrane, or by inciting increased action of 
the nervous and muscular structures of the intestines ; whether 
the second increases the flow of urine chiefly by increased activ¬ 
ity of the renal cells, by greater dilution of 'the blood, or by 
nervous excitation ; and whether the third reduces the temper¬ 
ature by retarding the process of heat production, or by increas¬ 
ing heat dissipation, or by depression of the heat centres of the 
brain. The great practical importance of an exact knowledge 
of etiology, pathology, and therapeutics is too obvious to every 
intelligent student to need further illustration. It should be 
the aim of every student and practitioner of the healing art to 
know the actual changes in the blood, the tissues, the secretions 
and excretions, and the function of each organ, from the begin¬ 
ning to the end of every morbid process. It should be equally 
his aim to know the exact composition, properties and actions 
of every remedial agent he uses, and its influence on any one or 
all of the structures and functions of the living body. The pres¬ 
ent facilities and appliances for exact research, if used intelli¬ 
gently and patiently, make the evolution of such completeness 
of knowledge possible in every department of medicine. 
In proportion in which you see clearly the important lines 
of study I have indicated and steadfastly follow them, in the 
same proportion will all the departments of veterinary medicine 
