Page:The Thruston speech on the progress of medicine 1880.djvu/16

12 place in treatment when considered with regard to the mere administration of drugs; the nauseous complicated formula of even our more immediate forefathers, have given place to a much simpler method of prescribing. But those who have made a study of the amazing influence of the nervous system in its full relation to the life of the creature—an influence the knowledge of which I think I am right in saying is only on the very threshold of our field of discovery—must acknowledge that there may be grounds which are sufficient to justify us in making use of remedies, the exact scientific action of which we are at present unable to give. And I do but re-echo the sentiments of one of our most distinguished physicians when I urge the far greater importance of studying disease with regard to its extinction, rather than endeavouring to find those antidotes, the very existence of which is shrouded in the greatest uncertainty. And we shall gain fresh courage in our researches when we