Disease is perverted health. But, since they are founded on no cause, or at most speculative and spectacular causes, as unstable as the sands of the sea, the doctor who cannot brook the bewilderment of vacillation is compelled to hide away from the voices of mistaken pedants and knowing blatherskites until stabilized. Let them and me rest in peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not until then, let my epitaph be written. The truth is larger than any man, and, until it is established, the memory of its advocate is not important.
Man is an incident.
If he discovers a truth, it benefits all who accept it. That I have discovered the true cause of disease cannot be successfully disputed. I dallied long in endeavoring to trace disease back to poison taken into the system, such as food eaten after putrescence had begun, or from poisoning due to the development of putrescence after ingestion. In time I decided that poisoning per se is not disease. I found the same thing true of injuries and mental shock.