90 BIOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 



haps not. The author, too, may probably have 

 displayed suspicious vitalistic tendencies. One 

 thing, however, is pretty clear that the in 

 formation supplied with regard to the central 

 or * elementary' problems of physiology is 

 often so vague as to be of little apparent 

 practical importance. The practical physio 

 logical information which a student of medi 

 cine needs and uses is to a large extent only 

 picked up afterwards at the bedside or in the 

 study of experimental pathology. 



What is the reason for this defect in 

 physiological teaching? One might at first 

 suppose that whatever general theoretical 

 opinions might be held by a physiological 

 teacher, yet the facts of the science itself 

 must be the same, and that in teaching 

 the facts, as undoubtedly he does to the 

 best of his ability, he must be doing all 

 that is possible. But here comes in the 

 question, what facts ? The facts recorded 

 by physiologists are absolutely indefinite in 

 number, and only the more important ones 

 can be taught. Hence, in accordance with 

 the general plan just alluded to, only those 

 facts which bear on the ' mechanisms ' of the 



