Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/113

 intelligent and generally well-informed persons, "Why does not your profession eradicate plague, malaria, yellow-fever, and every kind of infectious and epidemic disease?" They do not seem to have the faintest conception of the difficulties, indeed I might say the impossibilities, of the task in many cases, considering the circumstances and conditions of human existence under which they prevail. I am sorry to read sometimes the utterances of members of our profession positively affirming that the day will come when such and such a disease will be swept off the face of the earth. Against such irrational and wild statements I feel bound personally humbly to protest, as I have done on previous occasions, being convinced that they work serious mischief in a variety of ways; and in my opinion we cannot be too careful as to what we promise or predict in this direction. Again referring to the circulatory system, it is extraordinary how the laity seem to be absolutely unable to understand in the slightest degree this system as a complex and highly organised mechanical structure; how they expect us, for example, to cure every kind of physical disease of the heart, however grave or complicated; or, at least, to enable them to go on living, with the aid of drugs or other methods of treatment, under all sorts of conditions; while they themselves must be allowed to do what they please, as regards social life, sports, games, and the like, to pursue