THE RELATIOI^S OF PHYSIOLOGY TO CHEMISTRY AND 



MORPHOLOGY.' 



By GiULio Fano. 



Owing" to atlvances in nietliods of researcb, to the increase in the 

 aggieoate of facts acquired by science, and to the ever more thorough 

 study of scientific systems concerning living beings, we have become 

 more and more exacting as to the interpretations — always, unfortu 

 nately, doubtful — to be given to physiological facts. We have sought 

 to replace the theory of vital force by a physico chemical theory of life; 

 to put in the place of a mysterious and impalpable entity a confusion of 

 material elements, which in their turn assume mysterious aud impon- 

 derable characters as soon as we attempt to define them in any way. 



But while it is true that the fundamental doctrine of i^hysics and 

 chemistry could not itself stand a searching analysis, yet there is no 

 doubt that it represents in the hierarchy of science the higher grade of 

 development now attained by our methods of investigation. The rapid 

 progress of these branches of science is probably chiefly due to the 

 relative simplicity of the problems with which they have to deal, but in 

 any case they are considered as the rational basis of a considerable 

 number of researches undertaken by physiology for the purpose of 

 defining scientifically the phenomeua of life. Let us not forget, how- 

 ever, that physics and chemistry ha\e yet far to go before they become 

 free, if indeed they ever do, from the shackles of empiricism; before 

 they are able to reduce every phenomenon to the simple expression of 

 time, space, and force, aud to the derivatives therefrom — energy, veloc- 

 ity, and mass; and that under the names attraction, affinity, conducti- 

 bility, etc., are hidden things no less obscure thau are the phenomena 

 of life. However this may be, since we can not conceive of a mechan- 

 ical basis of psychic facts, we ought nevertheless to admit that, with the 

 exception of consciousness, all expressions of function, infinite and com- 

 plex as they are, may be comprehended among physico chemical phe- 



'An maugural address given at the commencement of the physiological course at 

 the Institute for Higher Instruction at Florence. Translated from the Revue Scien- 

 titique, 1894, Vol. II, 4th ser., pages 257-264. 



377 



