XIV BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE 373 



The search for the explanation of diseased 

 states in modified cell-life; the discovery of the im- 

 portant part played by parasitic organisms in the 

 aetiology of disease; the elucidation of the action of 

 medicaments by the methods and the data of ex- 

 perimental physiology; appear to me to be the 

 greatest steps which have ever been made towards 

 the establishment of medicine on a scientific basis. 

 I need hardly say they could not have been made 

 except for the advance of normal biology. 



There can be no question, then, as to the na- 

 ture or the value of the connection between medi- 

 cine and the biological sciences. There can be no 

 doubt that the future of pathology and of thera- 

 peutics, and, therefore, that of practical medicine, 

 depends upon the extent to which those who oc- 

 cupy themselves with these subjects are trained in 

 the methods and impregnated with the funda- 

 mental truths of biology. 



And, in conclusion, I venture to suggest that 

 the collective sagacity of this congress could occupy 

 itself with no more important question than with 

 this: How is medical education to be arranged, so 

 that, without entangling the student in those 

 details of the systematist which are valueless to 

 him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of 

 the great truths respecting animal and vegetable 

 life, without which, notwithstanding all the prog- 

 ress of scientific medicine, he will still find himself 

 an empiric? 



