482 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 28, 1876 



disturb only the metamorphic rocks, occur chiefly in sheets, and 

 are often crumpled and contorted, while fragments of them occur 

 in ft conglomerate at the base of the Lower Carboniferous. This 

 set must therefore be pre-Carboniferous, while the upper set is 

 post-Carboniferous, and possibly Miocene. 



SECTION D.— Biology. 



Department of Anatomy and Physiology, 



Address by John G. McKendrick, M.D., F.R.S.E., Vice- 

 President. 



The Future of Physiological Research. 



Bearing in mind the fact that one of the objects of the British 

 Association is to mterest the public in the advancement of scien- 

 tific truth, it has been the practice of the presidents of the various 

 sections to make some remarks of a general character, or to give 

 a rhumi of the recent progress of science in their particular 

 department. I shall follow so far the examples of my prede- 

 cessors. I shall not attempt to enumerate, far less to describe, 

 the contributions made to anatomical and physiological science 

 during the past year, because that would entail a long and weari- 

 some report regarding investigations with which most of us are 

 already acquainted by the perusal of those excellent summaries 

 that appear from time to time in our scientific and medical 

 periodicals. With the view of limiting the scope of this address, 

 I propose to offer a few observations bearing generally upon 

 some of the scientific and social relations of anatomy and physio- 

 logy, with the view of interesting the public in what we have 

 been doing, and what we hope yet to do. 



These sciences present different views of the same great system 

 of truth. Each can be conceived as existing independently, while 

 at the same time the one science is the complement of the other. 

 Anatomy is the science of organic form, while physiology is that 

 of organic function. The anatomist investigates structure, its 

 form, general arrangements, and laws, and he may include in his 

 survey the purposes or functions which the structure fulfils. 

 Recently an opinion has been prevalent, and has cropped up in 

 various quarters, that anatomy is but a preparatory science for 

 physiology. This opinion has probably arisen in consequence 

 of the rapid growth of physiological science during the last 

 twenty or thirty years. But there can be no doubt that anatomy 

 has a rdle of her own by no means inferior to that of physiology. 

 She has to educe the formal laws which determine the structure 

 of organised bodies and their parts, and thus she establishes the 

 basis for scientific classification and arrangement. Anatomy is 

 the beginning, of course, of all medical education, and the 

 ground work on which the practical arts of medicine and surgery 

 are reared ; but in a broader sense, the science has to do with 

 the structure of every animal, from the simplest to the most 

 complex, and from the facts obtained in the investigation of the 

 structure of any animal, we are able to recognise the relationships 

 it has with other animals, or, in other words, its position in the 

 zoological scale. 



Dr. McKendrick then proceeded to speak of the methods of 

 anatomy, histology, the methods of physiology, the vivisection 

 question, the importance of teaching biology, the practical 

 aspects of anatomy and physiology, the importance of investiga- 

 tions on the physiological action of active substances, the relation 

 of physiology to medicine ; after which, with reference to the 

 relation of physiology to psychology, he remarked that as 

 physiology is intimately connected with psychology, or the 

 science of mind, and as this department of physiological work 

 has lately been his chief study, he may be allowed to refer to it a 

 little more in detail. 



Psychology may be divided into two parts : first, all those 

 phenomena which we may include under the term mind properly 

 so-called, such as feeling, volition, and intellectual processes ; 

 and second, the phenomena which are associated with, and which 

 indicate the alliance between, mind and matter. Every mental 

 act may be regarded in the present state of knowledge as having 

 a double aspect — on the one side it is known to our conscious- 

 ness, and on the other side it is the result of a nimaber of physical 

 processes occurring in the brain. 



The Methods of Psychology. 

 In the investigation of mental phenomenon, two modes of in- 

 quiry have been followed : first, that of introspection and reflec- 

 tion, in which the investigator looks within himself for the facts 

 of his experience ; and second, that of the examination of physio- 

 logical processes which coincide with sensorial or mental changes. 



It is evident that the first of these methods, usually called the 

 subjective, is open to the objection that by it a mind attempts to 

 observe its own operation?, and that the proceeding is somewhat 

 analogous to asking a machine to investigate its own mechanism. 

 This objection urged in other words by Comte, Maudsley, and 

 others, may be answered by replying that the subjective method 

 does not attempt to explain the physiological phenomena con- 

 comitant with mental states, but the laws which regulate these 

 mental states themselves. Suppose a complicated machine pos- 

 sessed consciousness, I can readily understand that by the exercise 

 of this consciousness it might be unable to discover the relation 

 and mechanism of its own parts, because in attempting to do so 

 the machinery would be so interfered with as to prevent normal 

 action ; but it might still be able to study the products of its 

 operations. I do not, therefore, decry this old method of psycho- 

 logical research as it is so much the fashion to do in these days. 

 Apart altogether from the philosophical speculations and systems 

 of philosophy founded upon them, I think many data accumu- 

 lated by such men as Locke, Berkeley, David Hume, Thomas 

 Reid, Dugald Stewart, Thomas Brown, Sir William Hamilton, 

 and James Mill, have as good a right to be considered correct as 

 many of the quasi-metaphysical conceptions of physical science. 

 Subjective inquiry carried on by such men cannot be given up as 

 a mode of psychological research. It may not carry us much 

 further than it has done, but it has rendered good service already, 

 and may possibly do more. 



But, on the other hand, the objective method appears to me 

 to be the one which, in future, will be principally cultivated, and 

 it is for this reason that, as a physiologist, I wish especially to 

 refer to it. 



It is the business of physiology to supply psychology with in- 

 formation regarding physical processes occurring in the nervous 

 system ; and it is one of the special features of the physiology of 

 the present day to direct attention to the physical side of mental 

 phenomena. No doubt Aristotle, Hobbes, and Hartley incor- 

 porated into their psychological theories much that was purely 

 physiological ; but in their days the physiology of the nervous 

 system was in a crude state, and, consequently, did not lead to 

 great results. In comparatively recent times, a new inductive 

 and experimental department of science has arisen, the nature of 

 which is indicated by the term physiological psychology, and 

 which is being diligently cultivated by numerous workers, both 

 at home and abroad. In our own country the writings and re- 

 searches of Herbert Spencer, Alexander Bain, Dr. Laycock, 

 George Henry Lewes, Dr. Maudsley, Dr. Carpenter, Alfred 

 Barratt, and James Sully, and on the continent those of Fechner, 

 Helmholtz, Wundt, Hermann Lotze, Taine, Donders, Plateau, 

 and Dalboef, have excited much interest, and have led to the 

 formation of a new school of thought. 



I think it right to mention here specially the name of Prof. 

 Laycock, who has done more, in my opinion, in this field of 

 inquiry than any other member of the medical profession of this 

 country in our time. His teaching has largely contributed to 

 our present humane methods of treating the insane ; he has 

 attracted year by year some of the best students of the University 

 of Edinburgh to this important department of medical practice ; 

 and his earlier writings incontestably show that, many years ago, 

 and prior to most of the writings of those great men whose 

 names I have just enumerated, he not only recognised the value 

 of physiological research with regard to mental phenomena, but 

 made important contributions himself. 



Physiology has thus encroached on psychology, and is attempt- 

 ing to supply from the objective side an explanation of at least 

 the simpler mental phenomena. As a proof of awakened 

 interest in this department, one of the features of the past year 

 has been the appearance of Mind, a quarterly journal of psycho- 

 logy, edited by my able friend Prof. Croom Robertson of Uni- 

 versity College. In the prospectus of this journal, it is stated 

 that "psychology, while drawing its fundamental data from 

 subjective consciousness, will be understood in the widest sense, 

 as covering all related lines of objective inquiry. Due promi- 

 nence will be given to the physiological investigation of nerve- 

 structure." This quotation indicates the view which the editor 

 takes of the relation of the two sciences, and already valuable 

 papers have appeared on subjects connected with physiological 

 psychology, from the pens of Sully, Lewes, Wundt, and others. 



Now a certain class of thinkers are alarmed by work of this 

 kind. They are afraid of the tendency " to represent the mental 

 fact as a physical facf," and they are inclined to shut their eyes 

 to the physical facts connected, undoubtedly, with psychological 

 processes, and to be contented with the study of subjective 



