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No. 25. 



March, 1896. 



Vol. V. 



LUDWIG AND MODERN PHYSIOLOGY. 1 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



THE death of any discoverer — of any one who has 

 added largely to the sum of human knowledge — 

 affords a reason for inquiring what his work was and how 

 he accomplished it. This inquiry has interest even when 

 the work has been completed in a few years and has been 

 limited to a single line of investigation — much more when 

 the life has been associated with the origin and develop- 

 ment of a new science and has extended over half a 

 century. 



The Science of Physiology as we know it came into 

 existence fifty years ago with the beginning of the active life 

 of Ludwig, in the same sense that the other great branch of 

 Biology, the Science of Living Beings (Ontology), as we 

 now know it, came into existence with the appearance of the 

 " Origin of Species ". In the order of time Physiology had 

 the advantage, for the new Physiology was accepted some 

 ten years before the Darwinian epoch. Notwithstanding, the 

 content of the science is relatively so unfamiliar, that before 

 entering: on the discussion of the life and work of the man 

 who, as I shall endeavour to show, had a larger share in 

 founding it than any of his contemporaries, it is necessary 

 to define its limits and its relations to other branches of 

 knowledge. 



1 Founded upon a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Jan. 

 24, 1896. 



