Page:The Thruston speech on the progress of medicine 1880.djvu/12

8 more truthful understanding of some of the problems with which disease brings us face to face, can only be thoroughly understood after full consideration of this important fact.

The study of medicine, as carried on in the present day, is characterized by the attempt to base the art upon a more exact scientific foundation than that upon which we find it resting in former years—may be, we strain the attempt too far. In the present state of our knowledge we can hardly expect to find a solution to each problem which medicine presents us with; but still the method of examination is right and will very assuredly produce some good fruit.

For a moment think of the way in which disease is studied in the present day. Studied often not so much with regard to the individual, but with the hope of ascertaining those principles under which lie the disturbing causes productive of disease. Compare for a moment our methods of investigation as witnessed in the daily