Page 139 - My FlipBook

are precisely those which should produce the conditions that
I have pointed out as existing in the mouth, which point out
susceptibility and immunity to decay. The coincidence in
this leads me to think that Dr. Michael's observations in
this respect are probably very nearly correct, and that in the
study of this subject in the future we will find this a basis, a
guidance, for determining the true nature of the influence of
the saliva over caries of the teeth, or over the production of
results by micro-organisms. This subject will be presented
more fully hereafter. I only wish to bring it to you at this
point for the purpose of connecting it more closely with the
studies which we have been going over, showing that these
studies are becoming related very directly to our specialty.
Indeed, gentlemen, the whole theory of medicine, the whole
field of pathology, is a unit we only divide it for the matter
;
of convenience in order that we may devote ourselves to a
particular form of practice and become more expert in that
particular form. I used the word expert—expert with our
fingers. The specialties of medicine are based upon expert-
ness with the fingers mostly ; they should never be based upon
knowledge of pathology or of physiology or of histology or
of anatomy ; every specialist of medicine must have the
—
knowledge of these subjects as a basis. Take surgery ^based
upon expertness with the fingers, mechanical expertness.
You take diseases of the chest ; that specialty is based upon
expertness in osculation, in determining the sounds given out
by which we gain a knowledge of the disease processes going
on within. And so we may go through the whole line of
divisions of the specialties of medicine and we find them based
upon expertness in doing this or that thing, with the fingers,
with the ear, with the e^^e, etc., while the general basis of
anatomy, histology, physiology, pathology, etc., are common
to all the specialties, to ours as well as the rest.

Phagfocytosis.

There is one subject that I have practically left out that
has a strong relation to bacteriology, and that is phagocyto-
sis. You have had this presented to you from two other
chairs, and T thought I could better afiford to leave it out than
some other things. You will remember that the phagocytes are
the white blood cells, or a particular kind of white blood cells
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