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From the earliest times to our own the mentalbias of physicians has been strongly toward philosophizing. This has been true because of the inherent difficulties of the subject matter with which pathology deals. That it is not due to lack of scientific method in early times, is conclusively shown by the fact that modern theories upon the subject are not in accord. And some theory is just as necessary for a working basis for the doctor of to-day as it was when "The Genuine Works of Hippocrates" contained all the knowledge which a progressive doctor needed to know. And other things being equal, a physician's success and usefulness may be guaged by the completeness of his theories regarding disease, and the thoroughness with which he carries them out in practice.
The history of the development of bacteriology gives ample evidence that it has followed the common paths of the progress