Page:The Harveian oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 26, 1889 (IA b22361285).pdf/27

 who have the time and the taste for inquiry would apply chemistry carefully and minutely to a subject which is not only deeply interesting to us as pathologists, but which more especially recommends itself to the student by the mysterious beauty of its manifestations.

If we now pass on to consider the position of humoral pathology in the present day, we see at once how necessary a knowledge of the circulation has been to its advancement. Dependent as this branch of science is for its successful prosecution upon a combined knowledge of chemistry, physics, and practical medicine, but few competent labourers can be found in the field, while the importance of the inquiry far exceeds that which, as physicians, we ought to attach to any other branch of pathology. When reflecting on the morbid changes effected in the solids, whether they be such as to admit of detection by the unassisted eye, or to require the aid of that valuable, though in some hands dangerous instrument, the microscope; still, we are obliged, if we desire to advance but a single step, to revert to the probable changes in the fluids which have preceded and brought about the lesion. Trite as this remark may appear, I am