THE ROMANCE OF MEDICINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF MEDICINE.

The practice of medicine- is: generally regarded! as one of those serious pro fessions whidh do not adiikit of J romance. But m its gradual, evolution from ■ ar; : unknown science, to what is practically an art there is plenty of room for speculation. Dr Ronald Macfie, indeed, has found material enough m his study to write a whole book. He reminds us; that the -publication of Virchow's treatise on qellular pathology m 1858 mau ._> gnraled a new era m medicine. Pi*viously the. body had been considered amysteriously metaphysical whole or. .asan aggregate of .organs,, andi. the organs themselves as a 'pjitchwork o.f tissues. But observation after the publication of the work became centred upon the ultimate structural' elements, the cells. It was soon recognised that disease was to a 'large extent simply a. fight between, the cells of the bocly and .the invading microbes, and methods of treatment were devised .for assisting the cells m repelling the invaders. \ According to Dr Macfie, even cancer becomes less formidable when regarded m its cellular aspect The disease ,is a mass of, cells, and the doctor advances the uncanny theory that m this respect it is a firstcousin to man himself. The same with the heart. Tlie terms "high spirits and "low .spirits," which are still.,. in use had a much wider meaning before Harvey discovered that the heart was merely a force pump driving a ved fmid through a system of closed tubes. .. it was thought for hundreds of years that tho breath waa drawn into the heart and there changed into the vital -and animal spirits which ran down the nerves and gave man his power pi feeU m"- and "movement. But, though the mechanism by which the blood is made to circulate is now fully understood,, the. mystery of the heart-beat is stifll un-' Galen talked of "vital spirits," wMlat his successors to-day refer to "malecufer reamingemonf," but m both cases the tovrn? are simply employed to cloak professional ignorance. The whole thing is a miglity mystery,, and whilst men are sighing for new Worlds to conquer the vast field of medicine still retains unconquered lands which no man has trod. ■ . ' ,