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IHE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



1850, that an attempt was made by a 

 number of so-called philantropists, to 

 have a prohibitory act enacted, by an 

 appeal to Bonaparte III. This appeal 

 was unsuccessful however. 



Magendie, a student of Boyer, ulti- 

 mately succeeded Recamier in the Chair 

 of Physiology at the College of France. 

 Magendie was a genuine pioneer in ex- 

 perimental physiology, to him belongs 

 the credit of proving that the veins are 

 concerned in carrying off the products of 

 dissimilation. He also showed the ne- 

 cessity of a varied diet, i. e., consisting 

 of organic nitrogenized, non-nitrogenized 

 and inorganic constituents. 



He was largely concerned in the early 

 attempts at the localization of the areas 

 in the brain that give motion to certain 

 distinct groups of muscles, a knowledge 

 that to-day enables the surgeon to suc- 

 cessfully operate on cases of brain injury 

 and disease. 



He also shares with Sir Charles Bell 

 of England, the distinction of proving 

 that the anterior roots of the spinal 

 nerves are concerned in motion, and the 

 posterior in sensation. Still this gen- 

 uinely belongs to Magendie (1822), as 

 Bell claimed that the anterior roots were 

 concerned in motion and sensation, whilst 

 the posterior roots governed the "secret 

 functions of the body." 



Bernard was Magendie' s assistant, 

 and later succeeded him as Professor of 

 experimental physiology. 



Perhaps no physiologist known to his- 

 tory ever combined the dexterity in op- 

 erative skill and the ingeniousness in 

 devising methods of investigation, that 

 found their origin in Bernard. 



It is to him that we owe our under- 

 standing of the glycogenic function of the 

 liver. Although quite different views were 

 held at the same time of Bernard's experi- 

 ments, by Pavy of lyondon, these views 

 were ultimately reconciled by the truly 



remarkable observation made by Austin 

 Flint of New York. 



Bernard was the first physiologist to 

 make direct experiments upon the pan- 

 creas, by establishing an artificial fistula 

 and obtaining the pure secretion of this 

 organ. Before this, no idea of the di- 

 gestion of fats was entertained. 



Again his experiments on the nerves 

 that animate the organ concerned in the 

 production of the voice were a valuable 

 contribution to science. 



So much for some of the things that 

 vivisection has accomplished in the di- 

 rection of a clear understanding of the 

 phenomena that take place in the organ- 

 ism. These are matters of history, facts 

 that go far to denounce the absurd idea 

 that vivisection is a needless, profitless 

 barbarism. 



A great many new facts have been 

 developed since the era referred to, all 

 the older discoveries have been verified 

 many times. Some of them are demon- 

 strated yearly at the medical schools 

 much improved and perfected, regarding 

 the details left untouched by the older 

 experimenters. Surely a man who has 

 once seen the heart acting in a living 

 animal, must always have a clear image 

 in his mind when he puts his ear or the 

 stethoscope on a patients chest. 



To-day, rapid strides are being made 

 in the field of experimental physiology. 

 But greater and far more important is 

 the fact that the science of bacteriology 

 is only exact when experiments are made 

 with the various micro-organisms on 

 living animals. 



That terrible wide-spread disease, tu- 

 berculosis is now being clearly under- 

 stood and placed in the category of in- 

 fectious diseases, as the result of experi- 

 ments on living animals. So it is with 

 most all the other infectious diseases, in- 

 cluding Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, all 

 the septic surgical diseases and puerperal 

 fever. 



