92 BIOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 



is scarcely touched upon, while a vast mass 

 of unrelated and unassimilable mechanical 

 detail is carefully recorded and described. 



The fault evidently lies in the general plan 

 of exposition. This plan does not fit the 

 facts to be described. The living body is 

 a living organism, and physiology must treat 

 it as such, or else submit to the reproach 

 of being a complete failure. The attempt 

 to treat physiology on the principles so 

 clearly laid down in Ludwig's Introduction to 

 his text-book is as wide of the mark as would 

 be an attempt to treat painting and sculpture 

 on the basis of a mere knowledge of the 

 chemistry and physics of paint and marble. 

 Teaching and investigation must begin, con 

 tinue, and end with the presupposition that 

 the body is a living organism, which must 

 be seen as a whole if it is to be seen at all. 

 To shut our eyes to the central fact of living 

 organic existence is to shut our eyes to 

 physiology itself, and to biology generally. 

 It does not matter what aspect, or what 

 portion of physiology or biology we are 

 studying: we are always face to face with 

 living organisms as wholes or parts of 



