POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 



medicine -which ImcT a real scientific founda- 

 tion, uml in which the local trp.it mont fell 

 comparatively into tho background. The 

 therapeutics of febrile diseases had thereby 

 become very monotonous, although the means 

 indicated by theory were still abundant- 

 ly used, and especially blood-letting, which 

 since that time has almost been entirely 

 abandoned. Therapeutics became still inoro 

 impoverished as tho younger and more criti- 

 cal generation grew up, and tested tho 

 assumptions of that which was considered to 

 be scientific. Among the younger generation 

 were many who, in despair as to their sci- 

 ence, hud almost entirely given tip therapeu- 

 tics, or on principle had grasped at an em- 

 piricism such as Rademacher then taught, 

 which regarded any expectation of a scientific 

 explanation as a vain hope. 



AVhat wo learned at that time were only the 

 ruins of the older dogmatiam.bat their doubt- 

 ful features soon manifested themselves. 



The vitalistic physician considered that 

 the essential part of the vital processes did 

 not depend upon natural forces, which, doing 

 their work with blind necessity and accord- 

 ing to a fixed law, determined the result. 

 What these forces could do appeared quite 

 subordinate, and scarcely worthy of a minute 

 study. He thought that he had to deal with 

 a soul-like being, to which a thinker, a phi- 

 losopher, and an intelligent man must be op- 

 posed. May I elucidate this by a few out- 

 lines ? 



At this time auscultation and percussion 

 of the organs of the chest were being regu- 

 larly practised in tho clinical wards. But I 

 have often heard it maintained that they 

 were a coarse mechanical means of investiga- 

 tion which a physician with a clear mental 

 vision did not need ; and it indeed lowered 

 and debased the patient, who was anyhow a 

 human being, by treating him as a machine. 

 To feel the pulse seemed the most direct 

 method of learning tho mode of action of tho 

 vital force, and it was practised, therefore, 

 as by far the most important means of inves- 

 tigation. To count with a repeater was quite 

 usual, but seemed to the old gentlemen as a 

 method not quite in good taste. Thero was, 

 as yet, no idea of measuring temperature 

 in cii.sos of disease. In reference to thu 

 ophthalmoscope, a celebrated surgical col- 

 league said to me that ho would never use the 

 instrument, it wad too dangerous to admit 

 crude light into diseased eyes ; another said 

 tho mirror might be useful for physicians 

 with bad eyes ; his, however, were good, and 

 he did not need it. 



A professor of physiology of that time, cel- 

 ebrated for his literary activity, and noted as 

 an orator and intelligent man, had a dispute 

 on tho images in the e>o with his colleague 

 tho physicist. Tho hitter challenged the 

 physiologist to visit him and witness the ex- 

 periment. The physiologist, however, re- 

 fused his request with indignation ; alleging 

 that a physiologist had nothing to do with 

 experiments ; they were of no good but for 

 th physicist. Another aged and learned pro- 



fessor of ni<>rf'.pr>Ti!icR, \riio occupied hlnisefit 

 mu.-ii v.vJi tilt; reorganization of the uni- 

 versities, was urgent with mo to divide phys- 

 iology, in order to restore the good old time ; 

 that I myself should lecture on the rally in- 

 tellectual part, and should hand over the 

 lower experimental part to a colleague whom 

 he regarded as good enough for tho purpose. 

 Ho quite gave ruo up when I said tiiat I my- 

 self considered experiments to bo the true 

 basis of science. 



I mention those points, which I myself 

 have experienced, to elucidate the feeling of 

 tho older schools, and indeed of the most 

 illustrious representatives of medical science, 

 in reference to the progressive set of ideas of 

 tho natural sciences ; in literature these ideaf. 

 naturally found feebler expression, for'ihe 

 old gentlemen wero cautious and worldly 

 wise. 



You will understand how great a hin- 

 drance to progress such a feeling on the part 

 of infiue itial and respected men must hivo 

 been. The medical education of that timo 

 was based mainly on the study of books ; 

 there were still lectures, which were restrict- 

 ed to mere dictation ; for experiments arid 

 demonstrations in the laboratory the pro- 

 vision made was sometimes good and some- 

 times the reverse ; there were 110 physiologi- 

 cal and physical laboratories in which tho 

 student himself might go to work. Liebig's 

 great deed, the foundation of the chemical 

 laboratory, was complete, us far as chemistry 

 w*as concerned, but his example had not been 

 imitated elsewhere. Yet medicine possessed 

 in anatomical dissections a great means of 

 education for independent observation, which 

 is wanting in tho other faculties, nud to 

 which 1 am disposed to attach great weight. 

 Microscopic demonstrations were isolated 

 and infrequent in the lectures. Microscopic 

 instruments wero costly and scarce. I cams 

 into possession of one by having spent my 

 autumn vacation in 1841 in the Charite, pros- 

 trated by typhoid fever ; as pupil, 1 was 

 nursed without expense, and on my recovery 

 I found myself in possession of the savings 

 of my small resources.. The instrument was 

 not beautiful, yet I was able to recognize by 

 its means the prolongations of the ganglionic 

 cells in the inveitenrata, which I described 

 in my dissertation, e.rid to investigate tho 

 vibrions in my research on putrefaction and 

 fermentation. 



Any of my fellow-students who wished to 

 make experiments had to do so at tho cost of 

 his pocket-money. OHO thing we learned 

 thereby, which tho younger generation does 

 not, perhaps, learn KO veil in thelaboratoric-M 

 that is, to consider in all directions tho i 

 ways and means of attaining th;-; riul, and to 

 exhaust nil possibilities in th consideration, 

 until a practicable path was found. "\Vo had, 

 it is true, an almost uncultivated field beforo 

 us, in which almost every stroke of tho spade 

 might produeu remunerative- results. 



It WHS one man more especially who 

 aroused our enthusiasm for work in tho right 

 direction th&t is, Johannes Millie?, tho phys- 



