In noting the above distinctive osteopathic etiologic features the student should not lose sight of the constitutional status of the patient which may be modified by inherited, congenital, diathetic, and environmental influences, all of which go to make up the predisposition of the individual and have an important relation to osteopathic factors. Then it should be recalled that disease processes may be of insidious progress, and the products and effects of pathologic changes accumulative. Osteopathic Pathology In the etiologic study the osteopathic characteristics have been designated structural maladjustment, although at the same time not losing sight of the angle that the body is not only a physical mechanism but also a vital organism. Structural perversions characterize the osteopathic distinction when dealing with the physical body, and remembering the vital or biochemic mechanism, mental attitude, diet, hygiene, etc., are not forgotten. To retain or attain health, thorough appreciation of both the physical and vital mechanisms should be kept in view, for there is both an independent and dependent interaction on the part of each. The living body being an entity premises a system of therapeutics both physical and vital, that acts in direct accord and harmony with physical laws and physiological functioning. Osteopathic pathology deals with the distinctive osteopathic lesion as a factor in production and maintenance of disease. Then the province of pathology is, first, to determine whether the lesion is in reality an etiologic factor; second, the immediate character of the lesion disturbance; and, third, how organic life becomes involved. Inspection, palpation, clinical results, dissection and laboratory experimentation include the methods employed to prove that the lesion is of practical consequence. That the lesion is an etiological factor can be known only through clinical and experimental proof; the immediate character of the lesion disturbance can be determined by dissection; and how organic life becomes involved requires the summation of histological, physiological and pathological data. The following outline assumes that the reader is familiar with anatomy, physiology and pathology. Osteopathic pathology does not add to medical pathology an absolutely new pathology in all of the present known numerous details, but instead interprets much of clinical pathology anew, and furthermore it presents absolutely new data that is exclusive, but germane to the present general medical and surgical fields.