XIV BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE 373 



The search for the explanation of diseased states 

 in modified cell- life ; the discovery of the important 

 part played by parasitic organisms in the aetiology 

 of disease ; the elucidation of the action of medica- 

 ments by the methods and the data of experimental 

 physiology ; appear to me to be the greatest steps 

 which have ever been made towards the establish- 

 ment of medicine on a scientific basis. I need 

 hardly say they could not have been made except 

 for the advance of normal biology. 



There can be no question, then, as to the nature 

 or the value of the connection between medicine 

 and the biological sciences. There can be no doubt 

 that the future of pathology and of therapeutics, 

 and, therefore, that of practical medicine, depends 

 upon the extent to which those who occupy them- 

 selves with these subjects are trained in the methods 

 and impregnated with the fundamental truths of 

 biology. 



And, in conclusion, I venture to suggest that the 

 collective sagacity of this congress could occupy 

 itself with no more important question than with 

 this : How is medical education to be arranged, so 

 that, without entangling the student in those 

 details of the systematist which are valueless to 

 him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of 

 the great truths respecting animal and vegetable 

 life,without which, notwithstanding all the progress 

 of scientific medicine, he will still find himself au 

 empiric ? 



