392 WORK OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATION AT PARIS. 



nature. In order to unite zoology aud physiology it is necessary that 

 tliese two sciences should have methods in common and should apply 

 them under the same circumstances, Avhich should neither be in the 

 gallery of the zoologist nor in the laboratory of the Aavisector. 



During our epoch the natural sciences have made such progress as has 

 quite transformed them. The physiologists of to-day use new methods 

 and instruments of precjision which enable them to study the phenomena 

 of life with an exactitude formerly obtained only by physicists. This 

 apparatus, first intended to be used in vivisection, is undergoing a grad- 

 ual change and is tending to become applicable for use upon animals 

 and to man himself while in perfect health and in the exercise of their 

 Hornuil functions. 



On their side the zoologists, in addition to the menageries in which 

 they bring together living animals of all kinds and all countries, have 

 found, in the employment of the aquarium and in the establishment of 

 maritime zoological stations, the means of observing in its natural 

 surroundings tlie fauna of the sea and even that of fresh water. The 

 moment seems to have arrived when the natural sciences may be made 

 to profit by these two kinds of progress, and -when we may direct 

 toward a common end efforts too long divergent. 



It is with this intention that the Physiological Station was estab- 

 lished. 



In order to show the resources of this institution and the develop- 

 ments it ought to have, permit me to first recount the evolution of the 

 Schemes of investigation for the application of Avhich it a\ as established. 



Daughter of anatomy, physiology was at first obliged to use the 

 scalpel. It was "while dissecting living animals that Asellius, Harvey, 

 Charles Bell, and so many others made their grand discoveries. But 

 the number of phenomena accessible to pure observation is necessa- 

 rily limited, so physiologists had to borrow from the ])liysicists their 

 methods and their instruments in order to discover new facts. Thus 

 the mercurial manometer was used by JNIagendie to measure the pressure 

 of the blood at the different ])oints of the vascular system: the deli- 

 cate thermometers of Walferdin enabled Claude Berinird to show the 

 unequal distribution of temperature in the orgaiiism, to recognize the 

 effect which nerves have upon these variations of temperature, and to 

 establish the foundations of a general theory of vasomotor nerves. 

 M. Pasteur himself, whose discoveries have given a new impetus to 

 j)hysiology and medicine, would never have been able to support his 

 doctrines by such weight of evidence had he not conceived and created 

 new methods and appliances. 



For many long years I have devoted my time to developing and i>er- 

 fecting physiological a])paratus. Struck with the importance of move- 

 ment in most of the functions of life, I wished to make it possible to 



