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��348 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
but five properties of matter, and that in every body these five properties appear.
In medicine we are attempting to show thatthe fund amenta! property on which the science is founded is consciousness, from which are derived the opinions by which physicians serve their fellow men to secure their welfare. We have tried to show that these opinions require a special study of the metabolism, anatomy, physiology, reproduction, and nervous organization of the human being. In addition to this, there is required a special study of the environment of mankind — the environment of air, water, rocks, plants, and animals, including human beings, by which the individual is surrounded. We might have resolved the immediate environment to more remote conditions in the universe, but have contented ourselves with the immediate or proximate environ- ment, rather for the purpose of showing that it is not necessary to make a final resolution of bodies and relations in order to dis- cover pentalogic elements, although such elements appear whether proximate or ultimate conditions are viewed.
The physician must be informed not only about the conditions of health in these realms of environment, but also the conditions of disease in the same realms, in order that he may properly advise his patient for the benefit of his sanitation, or that he may prescribe those remedies which are best adapted to allay the evil effects of his environment. For this purpose he studies the eti- ology or cause of disease. He must first study the disease itself in its symptoms, and then discover the origin of the disease in un- favorable conditions. We may pass over the study of symptoms, and the classification of diseases themselves, for here we might antagonize contending pathies. Perchance, if I were quite honest, I would confess my inability to treat the subject as a medical expert. Then the physician must be versed in the causes of disease, and he discovers these causes in air, water, rocks, plants, and animals. Now, we might reclassify these agencies of disease, but the discussion would lead us too far from
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