IMPORTANCE OF EARLY DIAGNOSIS.

From both the scientific and practical standpoint, the diagnosis of a disease or ailment ought to be the most attractive factor in the practice of medicine or surgery. In any case the diagnosis is the foundation or base on which we build our plan of treatment and make our prognosis. It is the fulcrum on which moves the lever of judgment and logical deduction, that raises our unknown quantity into the light of scientific certainty. It is often asserted that any one who can correctly diagnose will have no trouble in treating the pathologic conditions with which he is confronted. I have as frequently heard the statement that scarcely over 50 per cent. of cases treated are accurately diagnosed. There may have been some foundation for the latter statement in former times, but certainly, today, there is less justification for its utterance. There is still, however, too much empiricism. Nature