THERMAL DEATH-POINT OF LIVING MATTER. 185 



serving faculties by " object-teaching," appealing to the senses of 

 sight and hearing, those two great avenues of knowledge, or giving 

 much instruction orally, we require the scholar to spend most of his 

 time in studying and poring over books, mere books. The mind is 

 treated as a kind of general receptacle into which knowledge almost 

 indiscriminately must be poured, yes, forced, without making that 

 knowledge one's own, or creating that self-reliance which is indispen- 

 sable to its proper use. In this way the brain does not work so natu- 

 rally or healthily as it ought, and a vast amount of time, labor, and 

 expense, is' wasted nay, worse than wasted. From this forced and 

 unnatural process there often results not only a want of harmony and 

 complete development of all parts of the brain, but an excessive de- 

 velopment of the nervous temperament, and not unfrequently an irri- 

 tability and morbidness which are hard to bear and difficult to over- 

 come. And not unfrequently it ends in a permanent disease of the 

 brain, or confinement in a luuatic asylum. 



When we take a careful survey of the various discussions and 

 diverse theories on this subject, considered metaphysically, and then 

 compare them with the great improvements and discoveries in the 

 physical sciences for the last fifty years bearing upon the same subject, 

 the change or progress looks mainly in one direction, viz., that all true 

 mental science must ultimately be based upon physiology. Here is a 

 great work to be performed, and when accomplished it will constitute 

 one of the greatest, most valuable, and most important achievements, 

 that was ever wrought in the history of science. A vast amount of 

 positive knowledge has already been accumulated on this subject, by 

 various writers, but a great work, by way of analysis, observation, 

 and induction, and of further discoveries as to the functions of the 

 brain, remains to be completed. This work must be performed, in a 

 great measure, by persons profoundly versed in the physical sciences ; 

 and no small proportion of it must come from the observations, labors, 

 and contributions, of medical men. 



-4^*- 



THEEMAL DEATH-POIXT OF LIVIXG MATTER. 1 



By H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M.D., F. E.S., 



PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



II. 



ALTHOUGH it is doubtless true that the superior dryness of 

 seeds does enable them to resist the influence of heat longer 

 than moist eggs are able to do, and therefore also enables them appar- 

 ently to resist for a brief period a temperature notably higher than 

 would have pi-oved fatal to them had they been in a moist state it 



1 From author's advance sheets. 



