PROBLEMS OF MODERN SCIENCE 



adequately treated. I must not forget that my 

 distinguished colleague, Professor Halliburton, will 

 speak with much greater authority later on, but 

 perhaps I may be allowed to say a few words on 

 this matter, if only from the point of view of an 

 interested surveyor of the field who has to content 

 himself with looking over the fence. 



The general Physiology of Plants and Animals 

 would deal with the complete vital activities of 

 individuals regarded each as a working whole ; 

 the interrelationships of the different functions 

 and their co-ordination in the maintenance of life. 

 The subject would have to be treated from a com- 

 parative point of view, for the correct understand- 

 ing of function requires the illumination of the 

 evolutionary hypothesis almost as much as does 

 the interpretation of structure. 



Biochemistry and Biophysics are those branches 

 of Physiology which form the connecting links 

 with the sister sciences and bring the living 

 organism into immediate contact, so to speak, 

 with the inanimate world. They say the last 

 word in the analysis of function from the purely 

 mechanistic standpoint, but they have not yet 

 supplied us with the solution of the riddle of life. 



The Physiology of the Special Functions, such 

 as Digestion, Respiration, Excretion, Locomotion, 

 132 



