ABSTRACT
The principal general conclusion which can be drawn, as it seems to me, from a survey at the present time of the subject of biological constitution in its relation to health and disease, is that we are really only just at the beginning of some understanding of a highly complicated and equally important matter. Little if anything in the way of general principles, soundly grounded and of established validity, has yet emerged. This is as true of the methodology and philosophy of the subject as it is of its results based upon the observation of phenomena, and it is about as true of the biological as of the medical side of the case. Furthermore it appears clear that an enormous amount of spade work—observing and above all measuring the variation of the human organism in respect of both its structural and functional characteristics—must still be done before there can be anything properly 84to be called a science of constitutional medicine and pathology.
