The progress of pathological science : John Baptist Morgagni and his successors : an inaugural address, delivered as President to the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / [by Prof. Gairdner].

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The progress of pathological science : John Baptist Morgagni and his successors : an inaugural address, delivered as President to the Pathological and Clinical Society of Glasgow / [by Prof. Gairdner]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    resting upon detailed evidence, and only open to con- troversy in so far as exact observation, and carefully performed experiments are liable to vary and to fail even in the most practised hands. But to carry this new science of pathology to its utmost limits, nay, even to appreciate its processes and verify their results, requires no less than that the observer should have spent, and be willing to spend, hours upon hours continuously over his microscope, or in the chemical laboratory, or in the extremely delicate and absorbing work of physiological and pathological experiment. The Cellular Pathology of Virchow, with all the detailed observations and doubtful questions that have arisen out of it; the exquisite researches of Cohnheim and Becklinghausen; the experimental, physical, and physiological results obtained by Klein and Sanderson, and many other and younger workers, seem to be leading the way to new depths of science that can only be sounded through the absolute devotion of a lifetime to new methods of research. It is here, I confess, that 1 begin to feel as if my proper place were not exactly to be at the head of this society. Having served my apprenticeship to some of these advanced methods, in days now long gone by, I am free to confess that the more recent advances have carried the more strictly scientific studies in pathology into regions far beyond my depth. But I have one consolation. If I am too old to teach, or to investigate with success