On the growth of the recruit and young soldier : with a view to a judicious selection of "growing lads" for the army, and a regulated system of training for recruits / by William Aitken.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the growth of the recruit and young soldier : with a view to a judicious selection of "growing lads" for the army, and a regulated system of training for recruits / by William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ment. Pathology, indeed, is the basis of rational medicine; for it is rational to know the nature of a disease, in order (1) to enable the Medical Officer to prevent it, and (2) to enable him to understand the principles which ought to guide him in its treatment to a suc- cessful issue. The best physiologists have distinctly re- cognised, that the basis of their science must include not only a knowledge of animals below man, but a knowledge of the entire vegetable kingdom. Without such an extensive survey of the whole realm of organic nature, we cannot possibly understand human physiology, and far less comparative physiology. Our science, therefore,—that of Pathology,—which deals with the nature of diseases, must be, a fortiori, very far behind. The diseases of the lower animals, for instance, rarely form any part of our study. The diseases of plants arc almost entirely neglected by us. Yet it is clear, that until all these have been studied, and some steps tflken to generalise them, every conclusion in patho- logy, regarding tlic nature of diseases, must be the result of a limited experience from a limited