Page:The Harveian oration, 1893.djvu/59

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35

new tool is occasionally offered us which deserves proving, but what we want far more is knowledge how to use the tools that we have. Treatment without diagnosis, besides its inefficiency, brings us for the time unpleasantly near to the charlatan who, whatever title he may assume, is always therapeutical and never pathological. Rational, bold, and effectual treatment, whether preventive or curative, must always depend upon accurate diagnosis and sound pathology, and the power of diagnosis depends upon that systematic inspection of the bodies of diseased persons which was recommended and practised by Harvey.

“Ad hanc inspectionem, cum Heraclito apud Aristotelem, in casam furnariam (sic dicam) introire si vultis, accedite : nam neque hie Dii desunt immortales. Maximusque omnipotens Pater in minimis et conspectior vilioribus quandoque est.”

Suffer me, then, Mr. President and Fellows of this College, to obey the instructions of the founder of this Lecture, by exhorting my hearers, and