2 Preside Ill's Address. 



fathers prescribed for the students of medicine the subjects 

 of botany and zoology. Tlie university, to its honour be 

 it said, has maintained this programme in all its integrity ; 

 I regret, however, to say that the former subject has been 

 ignored by the two colleges, but I certainly was not pre- 

 pared to find that, not content with the colleges having 

 dropped it, the university was to be attacked for having 

 retained it, and that the very complete education which 

 has been tlie glory of our alma mater was to be turned to 

 her discredit. That botany may be studied as a part of 

 general education was indeed conceded; but that, as regards 

 its hearing on medicine it was (if the speaker's words were 

 correctly reported) of no importance at all, — a mere waste 

 of the medical student's precious time. 



Now, gentlemen, such words as these, if uttered on any 

 other occasion than that of an inaugural address, might 

 safely be left to fall into the pit of oblivion, to which their 

 inherent gravity would hasten their descent, but when we 

 find other teachers present, and a vote of thanks unani- 

 mously accorded, it is time for us, in defence of our special 

 science, to inquire whether or not botany can be of any 

 use to the student of medicine ; and I should say — 



1st. He must surely have been asleep during the past 

 few years who does not know and acknowledge the intimate 

 connection between the vegetable and animal worlds. 

 Physiology is, I suppose, regarded by the lecturer as an 

 important part of the medical curriculum; but, I think, it 

 must be generally allowed that no man can be a truly 

 accomplished physiologist who is ignorant of the functions 

 of the vegetable kingdom. So much is this the case, that 

 only a few years ago, from that very same chair, Professor 

 Pettigrew, in treating of the circulation of the blood, began 

 with the consideration of the manifestation of movements 

 in tubes, &c., as exhibited in the vegetable world, devoting 

 at least two of his twelve lectures to that subject. It 

 was one of the grand characteristics of the teaching of 

 Goodsir, that he fixed the anatomical truths which he was 

 communicating in a firm, interesting, and philosophical 

 manner, by the analogous structures revealed by comparative 

 anatomy; and surely no more certain method of conveying 

 physiological trutli in an attractive and impressive manner 



