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The subdivision of practical medicine into a great number of specialties has not proved an unmixed boon to either science or the welfare of humanity. If one peruses the reports of the specialists and becomes familiar with the trend of their work, one is struck with the peculiar antagonism that exists among the respective representatives or followers of the several special branches. The chief interest of their reports generally centers in the observation that by successfully treating a disease of the organ to which they pay special attention, symptoms in distant organs which other specialists claim as their domain, have vanished; the additional remark being generally made that the patient had been treated by such and such a specialist of another order without any benefit.
A few such results, misconceived as a rule, as to their true nature and import, will render the young specialist enthusiastic; from an enthusiastic he