330 
The  History  of  Pathology. 
A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1904. 
THE   DEVELOPMENT  AND   IMPORTANCE  OF 
PATHOLOGY. 
By  Dr.  George  Dock, 
Professor  of  Medicine,  University  of  Michigan. 
It  is  hard  to  believe,  but  none  the  less  true,  that  when  this  school 
was  founded,  140  years  ago,  medicine  was  but  little  in  advance  of 
its  condition  2,000  years  before.  In  the  long  interval  medical 
knowledge  had  traveled  in  circles,  never  getting  very  far  beyond 
the  elementary  pathological  and  clinical  facts  known  in  the  age  of 
Pericles. 
In  the  five  centuries  between  Hippocrates  and  Galen  there  was  no 
progress  at  all,  and  for  nearly  fifteen  hundred  years  Galen  and  Hip- 
pocrates, with  Aristotle,  were  deemed  as  infallible  in  medicine  as 
the  Fathers  of  the  Church  were  in  theology.  Sydenham,  inferior 
to  the  Greek  and  Roman  masters  in  breadth  of  knowledge,  was  the 
first  to  apply  the  new  principles  of  Baconian  philosophy  in  medi- 
cine, and  Sydenham's  life  was  separated  from  that  of  John  Morgan, 
the  father  of  the  Medical  Department,  by  less  than  fifty  years. 
Though  the  scholars  of  the  Renaissance  had  shown  that  the  Greek 
and  Roman  texts  used  through  the  Middle  Ages  were  sadly  cor- 
rupted from  the  originals,  and  though  dissection  of  the  human  body 
was  practiced  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  Modino  and  Guy  of 
Chauliac,  it  was  not  until  the  genius  of  Vesalius  dawned  (15 14-1564) 
that  the  first  severe  blow  was  given  to  Galen's  authority.  About 
the  same  time  pathological  anatomy  began  to  be  cultivated,  but  the 
early  observations  were  devoted  chiefly  to  monstrosities  and  other 
apparently  miraculous  formations,  and  had  little  more  relation  with 
pathology  than  the  stones  collected  by  a  small  boy  have  to  geology. 
The  need  of  more  rational  methods  was  clearly  stated  by  Bacon 
("  Of  the  Advancement  of  Learning."  Book  IV,  Chap.  2),  who 
urged  the  study  of  case-histories,  the  cultivation  of  morbid  anatomy 
and  ot  vivisection  of  animals.  The  revelations  of  Harvey  were 
essential  to  the  ultimate  development  of  pathology,  but  the  first 
application  of  physiology,  as  the  first  application  of  physics  and 
chemistry  to  pathology,  caused  confusion  rather  than  enlightenment. 
Medicine  had  gathered  in  its  course  through  the  dark  ages  so  much 
rubbish,  such  as  magic,  astrology,  polypharmacy,  the  doctrine  of 
signatures  and  all  manner  of  mystic  beliefs  that  still  survive  to  vex 
the  impatient,  that  it  could  follow  but  slowly  the  steep  path  of  dis- 
