October 20, 1898] 



NA TURE 



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dissection, with the sacred structures which he would be called 

 upon to invade with his knife in the living body. A dissecting 

 room well provided with the needful material for study has 

 sinoe been an essential equipment of every medical school, and a 

 thorough course of dissection is demanded of every medical 

 student. Meanwhile another kind of anatomy than that 

 which the scalpel displays has come into being— the anatomy 

 which the microscope has revealed and is constantly further 

 revealing. This microscopic anatomy both of healthy and of 

 diseased structures has assumed the greatest importance, and 

 like naked-eye anatomy it requires special provision for its 

 successful study. The materials to be studied cannot well be 

 obtained by the student in his lodgings, and the processes 

 employed for the elucidation of their minute structure are 

 often of a complicated character which he cannot learn un- 

 aided, and require costly apparatus which he cannot provide. 

 The requisite facilities for this work will be amply supplied 

 by the laboratories which are to be opened to-day. The neces- 

 sity for special pathological institutions has long been recog- 

 nised on the continent, and nowhere has such an establishment 

 been conducted with more signal success than in the Patho- 

 logisches Institut of Berlin, presided over for many long years 

 by the illustrious man whom Liverpool is, I am sure, as glad 

 to welcome with reverence as London has been. Many pre- 

 sent to-day have sat at the feet of Prof. Virchow, but we 

 may fairly anticipate that Liverpool students at all events will 

 for the future be able to dispense with these pilgrimages to 

 Germany. While the minute anatomy of normal and morbid 

 structures will be thus effectively taught in the new laboratories, 

 much may also l)e done in them to demonstrate and explain the 

 actions of the living organism. I well remember the effect pro- 

 duced upon me as a member of Dr. Sharpey's class in London, 

 by the repetition before us of Bernard's great experiment on the 

 local circulation, and the converse experiment of Waller. The 

 .sympathetic nerve in the neck of an animal being divided, 

 the ear of that side instantly became red and hot, and the 

 blood vessels turgid ; while on the application of galvanism 

 . to the severed nerve the opposite effect immediately fol- 

 lowed, the ear becoming white and cool, and the vessels less 

 conspicuous than those of the other side. Thus was impressed 

 upon us, as mere oral teaching could hardly have done, the im- 

 mensely important fact that the contractions of the arteries are 

 as much under the control of the nervous system as are those of 

 the muscles of a limb. I need, perhaps, hardly add that the 

 animal being completely under an anaesthetic during such a 

 demonstration no pain whatever is inflicted. In the study of 

 the new science of bacteriology the pathological laboratory will 

 render most important service. The student will see with his 

 own eyes by aid of the microscope the minute living beings 

 which we now know to constitute the essential cause of many 

 infectious diseases, and he will be put through a course of the 

 cultivation of these microbes, which, while it will impress upon 

 him the reality of their existence, and the characters by which 

 the various species may be recognised, will be invaluable as an 

 exercise of the habits of accurate observation and manipulative 

 skill. The new laboratories will also serve as a centre 

 to which practitioners of a wide surrounding district may 

 refer for the authoritative determination of the nature of 

 doubtful specimens of diseased material, which they- have 

 neither the needful equipment, time, nor special knowledge 

 to decide for themselves. As important as the services 

 which the laboratories will render to education and medical 

 practice will be the opportunities which they will afford for 

 research. I had occasion, in the address which I gave two 

 years ago in this city, to refer to some of the benefits which 

 have been secured to mankind by recent biological investiga- 

 tion, and I need not say more on the subject at present ; but I 

 would remark that every step in advance in science only opens 

 up wider fields for exploring the infinite resources of nature ; 

 and these laboratories will afford ample means for the further 

 prosecution of such beneficent inquiries. Some, perhaps, may 

 be disposed to object to such researches because they involve 

 the sacrifice of animal life. This, however, I need hardly 

 remark, is as nothing compared to what occurs for the supply 

 of food to man. Of animal suffering I need hardly speak, 

 because, in truth, the actual pain involved in these investigations 

 is commonly of the most trifling description. Anresthesia has 

 come to the aid of experiment on animals, as the electric tele- 

 graph did for railways. Anaesthesia enables needful operations 

 to be done without disturbance from the struggles of the animal, 



while it affords to the operator the unspeakable comfort of 

 knowing that he inflicts no pain. I am bound to add that anti- 

 septic treatment of the wounds has had a similar doubly beneficial 

 influence. By preventing inflammation it renders healing pain- 

 less, while it leaves the parts uncomplicated by inflammatory 

 changes, and allows the results of operative procedure 

 to be rightly estimated. I greatly surprised a former 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer when, on a deputation 

 to him on this subject, I explained to him that opera- 

 tions for the removal of parts of the brain of monkeys, 

 which he had imagined to be attended with horrible 

 torture, had, thanks to auKSthetics and antiseptics, been 

 probably from the first to last unattended with a twinge of pain. 

 Such operations thus painlessly conducted have, by indicating 

 the preci.se functions of different parts of the organ, and thus 

 guiding the surgeon in his operations, already led to the saving 

 of many human lives. While I deeply respect the humane feel- 

 ings of those who object to this class of inquiry, I would assure 

 them that, if they knew the truth, they would commend and not 

 condemn them. The laboratories, though they will be formally 

 opened to-day, have for some time past been in practical oper- 

 ation ; with the result that the Biological and Pathological 

 School of Liverpool is already ranking very high among similar 

 institutions in other parts of the world. As an illustration I 

 may mention the fact that a committee of the Royal Society, 

 with the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, has 

 lately selected a pupil of this school as one of two men specially 

 qualified to undertake investigations in Africa on the deadly 

 malaria of those regions. I cannot conclude these remarks with- 

 out congratulating the Liverpool College on the mighty addition 

 which these laboratories afford to their powers for usefulness. 

 I believe they may be pronounced, both in structure and equip- 

 ment, equal to any in existence. I must also congratulate you 

 on having so nobly generous a benefactor as Mr. Thompson- 

 Yates. I trust he will be rewarded by the deep satisfaction of 

 knowing that he is doing incalculable good to mankind. If I 

 may make one more observation, it is that while the laboratories 

 have been so nobly constructed and equipped, there is yet much 

 to be desired as regards the means for maintaining them in 

 efficiency ; and if any wealthy inhabitant of Liverpool is anxious 

 to bestow his wealth in some manner calculated to do good to 

 his fellow-men, he could hardly do better than by devoting a 

 portion of his resources to the permanent maintenance of these 

 fine institutions. 



MECHANICS AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 

 'X'HOUGH an admirable President had been secured in Sir 

 -*■ John Wolfe Barry, the proceedings in this Section were 

 not up to the usual .standard either in interest or importance to 

 the profession. The fact of the matter is that, as in other 

 Sections, too many papers are accepted, involving inordinately 

 long .sittings and often tending to hinder due discussion of really 

 valuable papers. Unless the communications are mere notes 

 of some scientific discovery or fact, the programme should be 

 so arranged that not more than four papers are put down for 

 any one day. The organising committee should insist that at 

 least half a dozen copies of any paper intended for reading 

 should be in the hands of the recorder a month before the open- 

 ing of the meeting : the recorder could then circulate these 

 copie-s, with a note of the day on which the paper would be 

 taken, amongst those engineers most capable of discussing 

 satisfactorily the facts and conclusions of the author, with a 

 request from the organising committee that they should attend 

 and take part in the discussion. The President would thus 

 have a list of those he could call upon to speak on any paper, 

 and the speakers having had an opportunity of preparing their 

 remarks beforehand, a really valuable discussion would be 

 secured. Eew men are able to get up and discuss offhand a 

 scientific paper, which they have had no opportunity of studying, 

 especially when it has been read often at great speed in an 

 almost inaudible tone ; the result is that we have the poor dis- 

 cussions which so often take all the life out of the proceedings 

 in Section G. 



At the Institution of Civil Engineers printed copies of the 

 papers are always circulated a week or two beforehand, and no 

 effort is spared to secure the attendance of every one capable of 

 throwing any light upon the subject under consideration. As a 



NO. 151 2, VOL. 58] 



