Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/62

 the specific disease is generated, and acquaintance with it is absolutely necessary for connecting the morbid condition with the previous state of health. Incipient disease has been too much overlooked. Its phenomena are as cognisable as any of the more advanced, and a clear conception of the progressive changes by which a state of health passes into that of disease, furnishes the best assistance I know for comprehending the nature of the complex derangements of which every special disease is ultimately composed. To trace back, therefore, any given disease, only so far as to identify it with the nosological exemplar, and to make this the point from which to commence the minute examination of the morbid condition, leaves a most essential, and by far the most instructive part of the enquiry unperformed. The scrutiny of an individual malady can never be complete when it only commences with a stage of disease already advanced; and the employment of remedies must ever fail in precision, and can make but slow progress towards the perfection attainable, so long as the mode obtains of first judging the disease by its correspondence with a nosological character, and then applying to it the means which have proved serviceable in the larger proportion of similar cases. Whether we regard the exposition of disease, or the adaptation of remedies, this mode is imperfect and objectionable. No individual disease corresponds exactly with the nosological prototype; each has its individual character, involving more or less peculiarity to distinguish it from every other; and it continually happens that a scrutiny of this peculiarity furnishes the main guidance to successful treatment.