II OF THE NATURAI. HISTORY SCIENCES 59 



I think it is one of the grandest features of 

 Biology, that it occupies this central position in 

 human knowledge. There is no side of the human 

 mind which physiological study leaves unculti- 

 vated. Connected by innumerable ties with ab- 

 stract science, Physiology is yet in the most inti- 

 mate relation with humanity; and by teaching us 

 that law and order, and a definite scheme of devel- 

 opment, regulate even the strangest and wildest 

 manifestations of individual life, she prepares the 

 student to look for a goal even amidst the erratic 

 wanderings of mankind, and to believe that history 

 offers something more than an entertaining chaos 

 — a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march no- 

 whither. 



The preceding considerations have, I hope, 

 served to indicate the replies which befit the first 

 two of the questions which I set before you at 

 starting, viz. AVhat is the range and position of 

 Physiological Science as a branch of knowledge, 

 and what is its value as a means of mental dis- 

 cipline? 



Its subject-matter is a large moiety of the uni- 

 verse — its position is midway between the physico- 

 chemical and the social sciences. Its value as a 

 branch of discipline is partly that which it has in 

 common with all sciences — the training and 

 strengthening of common sense; partly that 

 which is more peculiar to itself — the great exercise 

 which it affords to the faculties of observation and 



