The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-11
Tho Advance OF Medicine in the Vic.
torian Age.

torian Age.
The number Of the London Lancet, which
was published in the jubilee week, devoted
some twenty.three pages to a summary of
the progress made in the knowledge Of the
human body and in the treatment of It's ills
during the long reign of VICTORIA. In a
series of articles was traced the growth
of anatomical, physiological, and bioloRi-
cal knowledge; of chemistry in its
relation to therapeutics; Of bacteri-
ology n serum pathology; and final
ly, of surgery, midwifery, and med
icine, special attention being paid to the
last named science on the preventive side.
We should need many columns to set forth
even a naked list Of the names and facts
that deserve commemoration In each of
those departments, but by combining our
selves to medicine, and noting the help re-
celved by 1t from many kinds of scientific
research, we may take q birdseye view of
the whole field.
We can deal with the subject most sue
cinctly by ~propounding and answering
three questions. How much better of are
we in 1897 than We were In 1887, as
regards our knowledge Of the nature
Of diseases; as regards our capacity
for detection and discrimination; and,
lastly, as regards the power Of con-
troll and management 1t Is manifest
| that three lines of investigation nave as
sisted in widening and clarifying our con.
ceptions of the nature of diseases; these are
the anatomical, the physiological, and the
archaeological.
When the Victorian era began, the at
tention of Psychologists was, In the main,
confined to post-mortem dissection, and
tho study was rather of the effects than
of the processes of disease. The per.
fecting of the microscope, however, and
the investigation thereby Of the intimate
structures OF tissues and organs were
about to open up an entirely new field Of
anatomical research. The Importance Of
the "cell" as the ultimate element in all
living things was soon recognized, and q
full exposition of Its transformations and
powers was given In the work Of VIRoHow
on Cellular Pathology" which appeared
after 1850. Enormous has been the In
sight into the workings Of disease In
parted by the development Of this branch
of morbid anatomy. supplemented by SINH.
lar researches In normal anatomy and am
bryology; the text books and monographs
of the latter part of the Victorian age TEEN
with facts CLEANED from microscopic In.
v~estigation, and the differences drawn there.
from.
Wide, also, has been the expansion of
knowledge touching the nature of disease
derived from the application of the princi.
pies Of psychologists, to the calculation of
morbid processes. To the school Of expert.
mental pathology, In which stand out the
names of TRAUBE, CoHNHEIM, CHARLES
BELL, and MARSHALL HALL, is owing q
large part of our knowledge of the actual
process of Inflammation, of the arrange
ments of the circulation. and of disordered
nerve functions. Here, too, should be recog-
nized tho lights shed on those intimate proc.
esses OF nutrition and nutritional dis
orders which are still engaging the atten-
tion of the physiological chemist. The re-
searches of CLAUDE BERNARD and of PAvY
have given us an insight into the pathol.
ogy of diabetes those of BoUCHARp and
his pupils into that of ursmia and of
the blood states due to "self-intoxica-
ton" from defects in elimination, OF
the absorption of poisons generated In the
a~limentary canal. The study of the gastric
secretion Is tending TO a rational differen,
tiation of the group of the dyspepsias
while the chemistry of govt and rheuma
tism is advancing to a more accurate per
ception of the rationale of those states Of
the blood. The recognition of the cause,
and effect of increased ~arterial tension, and
the philosophical views Of GULL and SUIT
TON have done much to give breadth to al
conceptions OF chronic Bright's disease; in
deed, it would be difficult to point to any
subject of medical treatment in which tho
physiological method of research has no
been applied with more or less success.
Meanwhile, the problem OF disease wal
attacked from a9Otherslde. when the chem