368 AIM AND PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



victories over the powers of nature. They it is who 

 place at our disposal the actual means for carrying on our 

 labours, and are therefore entitled to enquire into the 

 results of those labours. It appears to me, therefore, 

 appropriate to this occasion to take account of the pro- 

 gress of science as a whole, of the objects it aspires to, 

 and the magnitude of the efforts made to attain them. 



Such a survey is desirable ; that it lies beyond the 

 powers of any one man to accomplish with even an ap- 

 proximate completeness such a task as this is clear from 

 what I have already said. If I stand here to-day with 

 such a problem entrusted to me, my excuse must be that 

 no other would attempt it, and I hold that an attempt to 

 accomplish it, even if with small success, is better than 

 none whatever. Besides, a physiologist has perhaps more 

 than all others immediate occasion to maintain a clear 

 and constant view of the entire field, for in the present 

 state of things it is peculiarly the lot of the physiologist 

 to receive help from all other branches of science and to 

 stand in alliance with them. In physiology, in fact, the 

 importance of the vast strides to which I shall allude, 

 has been chiefly felt, while to physiology, and the leading 

 controversies arising in it, some of the most valuable 

 discoveries are directly due. 



If I leave considerable gaps in my survey, my excuse 

 must be the magnitude of the task, and the fact that the 

 pressing summons of my friend the secretary of this Asso- 

 ciation reached me but recently, and that too in the course 

 of my summer holiday in the mountains. The gaps 

 which I may leave will at all events be abundantly filled 

 up by the proceedings of the Sections. 



Let us then proceed to our task. In discussing the 

 progress of physical science as a whole, the first question 

 which presents itself is, By what standard are we to 

 estimate this progress ? 



