INFLUENCE AS A PHYSIOLOGIST. 65 



period in which Dr. Carpenter s chief works were first published 

 was one of active research and real progress. The range of 

 physiology was rapidly enlarging, and the need of having it much 

 more thoroughly taught in the medical schools was constantly 

 becoming more evident. Nothing could better both prove and 

 supply this need than did Dr. Carpenter s books, collecting and 

 teaching as they did all that the best and latest researches of 

 the time was making sure or probable. They proved that 

 physiology could not reasonably be regarded as of second-rate 

 importance in medical education, and to many they supplied the 

 means of teaching it. Gradually the schools adopted the plan 

 of having the lectures on physiology and histology completely 

 separate from those on anatomy, and coextensive with them ; 

 many of the teachers became physiologists, and did good original 

 work, and encouraged their pupils to imitate them ; and the 

 whole subject was tuu_jiit in its relations with medicine as well 

 as surgery. 



I think that no change more important than this has been 

 made in our medical schools during the last half-century; and 

 that no one contributed to it more than Dr. Carpenter. For 

 many years his books were almost without a rival in the London 

 schools; Mayo s &quot; Physiology &quot; soon ceased to be read; the trans 

 lations of Tiedemann and Blumenbach were disused ; the trans 

 lation of M tiller s &quot; Physiology &quot; was too large, and in some parts 

 too difficult, for any but the best students. And this continued 

 till physiology became a subject of examination for diploma, 

 and smaller books were required with more simple recitals of 

 admitted facts, and with less argument and reasoning. 



I cannot speak from sufficient personal knowledge of Dr 

 Carpenter s influence as an oral teacher ; but I believe it was 

 similar, though not equal, to that which he exercised as a writer, 

 and, especially, was marked, as were his books, by his power ot 

 clearly expounding, even while condensing, all that he could 

 learn in even the wi lest study of each subject that he taught. 

 He was always earnest and enthusiastic ; he could say exactly 

 what he knew and believed ; and he used to speak as if he 

 wished his hearers to have the same pleasure as he himself had 

 enjoyed in learning what he had to tell. 



Hut Dr. Carpenter s influence on the progress and teaching 



