28 INTRODUCTION. L.ECT. I. 



exactitude of expression, that rigorous method, which are 

 too often discarded in the study of physiology and of medi- 

 ' cine, and which have hitherto been almost exclusively 

 characteristic of the physical sciences. 



Every advance in this direction, however slight it may at 

 first appear, will in fact be of great importance to physio- 

 logy; it will be a certain conquest gained, since it will be 

 founded upon knowledge, independent of the science of 

 the organism, and of which the bases will be established 

 and supported on physical theories, each proposition of 

 which has been rigorously demonstrated by experiment. 



