THE SIGNS OF LIFE 



" The greatest thing a human soul does 

 in this world is to see something, and tell 

 what it saw." RUSKIN. 



LECTURE I 



Aim and Purpose of the Lectures The Subject-matter of Physiology The 

 Signs of Life ; The Sign of a Sign is a Sign of the Thing itself Two 

 Familiar Instances ; on Muscle and on Nerve A Proof of Chemical 

 Change in Seeds An Experiment on Muscle Retinal Currents 

 Vegetable Currents Terminology Solution-pressure Summary. 



I. Aim. The aim and purpose of these lectures is 

 extremely simple. By the liberality of the Senate of the 

 University, seconded by the liberality of one of its distinguished 

 graduates, the teachers and students of physiology separately 

 working in the many scattered Colleges of the Metropolis, are 

 enabled to bring to its University, as to a focus, the best they 

 have to bring. 



I shall not take upon myself to utter any forecast of the fate 

 of this effort towards concentration, nor attempt to justify our 

 undertaking by any high-flown anticipations. All that I venture 

 to say on behalf of my colleagues as well as on my own behalf 

 is that we believe that in Physiology as in other subjects, there 

 exist in this great metropolis, scattered I had almost said lost 

 in the several colleges that now form part of the University, 

 the elements which collectively constitute a university school of 

 learning. 



And if I might venture to characterize by one word what 

 to my mind is the most essential mark of a teacher of university 

 rank, I should say that it is that such teacher should be an 



A 



