PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE. 7 



to blow the bellows, and even to decide on 

 the result that ensues, as well as the best 

 chemist that has ever existed. 



The same limited means are alone wanting in 

 physiology. There is not a lad of twenty years 

 of age, who comes from the country to any of 

 our hospitals in town, and who, after passing 

 with common industry two seasons in any of 

 our anatomical schools, is not perfectly com- 

 petent to perform any physiological experi- 

 ment. In addition to a precise knowledge of 

 position, the only requisites wanting, are a 

 steady hand, a sharp knife, a tolerably good 

 pair of eyes, and an unfeeling heart. 



To rip open the flanks of a dog, as well as of 

 a calf, to drag any particular organ out of its 

 situation, to paw and to squeeze it, to decide 

 whether it swells or contracts, whether it causes 

 pressure or not, on surrounding parts ; to tie a 

 ligature upon the vessels or tubes, with which 

 any organ is supplied; or, to extirpate the 

 organ altogether, and finally cut the animal's 

 throat, and strip the skin for the sake of the 

 leather, can be performed, as perfectly, by any 

 carcase-butcher in any slaughter house, as by 

 the generality of physiologists.* 



* To free myself from the charge of exaggeration, and to 

 enable the reader to decide for himself, how far I am justified 

 in saying that the degrees of talent necessary to perform an 



