66 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



of physiology was not nearly limited to that of his chief books 

 or to the time at which it began to be felt and was most potent. 

 All through his life he was among the most active in the promo 

 tion of research, in discussions whether in public or in private, 

 in reviewing, in exciting others to work. He constantly main 

 tained or enlarged the wide range of physiology in which he had 

 begun ; and however definitely he might state facts already 

 known on any subject, he never seemed to imply that they 

 were complete or final, or that the general principles of which 

 they were evidences did not admit of wider application. An 

 admirable example of this was in his extension of the principle 

 of reflex action in the nervous centres. The doctrine of the 

 reflex action of the spinal cord, as expounded by Dr. Marshall 

 Hall, was at the time so complete and compact that it seemed 

 to produce in some minds a feeling of final satisfaction and 

 repose. It did not so with him, and, as the result of his careful 

 thinking, he showed that power like that of the spinal cord exists 

 and does far higher work in portions of the brain. 



This may, I believe, be regarded as his best contribution 

 to physiology. It is, indeed, a rare example of accurate think 

 ing, and the best instance of his exercise of a power by which 

 he may always have renown among lecturers and writers on 

 science. Its principles expanded and became clearer as they 

 passed through his mind between the learning and the teaching 

 of them. 



My contemporaries in the medical profession (says Mr. 

 Huxley), the old men who tprere young men commencing their 

 studies forty or five and forty years ago, will, I am sure, recog 

 nize as gratefully as I do our indebtedness to Dr. Carpenter s 

 &quot; Human Physiology.&quot; It was the standard work on the sub 

 ject in this country at that time, and it retained its high and 

 well-deserved reputation for some thirty years. 



The &quot;forties&quot; constituted a period of transition between 

 the old physiology and the new, between the science of Haller 

 and Bichat and the science of Ludwig and Claude Bernard. 

 The microscope was opening a new world to the anatomist and 

 the embryolcgist ; while properly conceived and executed ex 

 perimental investigations of the properties of living matter were 



