Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/82

70 This, notwithstanding the trade exigencies of competitive living, is recognised by the established rule of the profession, that the physician’s first duty is not to injure his patient.

Sanitation necessarily takes into consideration all the elements, both mental and physical, of our complex nature.

It is by the investigation of the laws of healthy created life and their practical application that progress in medicine must be looked for. By observing 'scientifically' the method and variations of these laws, we shall approach nearer to the understanding of 'vital force.'

An immense range of biological inquiry urgently invites the genius of those who are gifted with the rare power of original research.

This range is practically unlimited. The collection of all useful or suggestive facts gathered by genuinely scientific methods from the enormous accumulations to be found in our Government reports, in the records of our medical periodic literature, in the observations of hospitals, societies, cliniques, and private practice, would, if properly arranged and tabulated, form a most useful branch of such a centre. If such collection and