A3^ 



NA TURE 



[September 2, 1897 



seemingly narrow word English as really meaning something 

 much broader than British in its very broadest sense. 



Using English in this sense, I may, I think, venture to say 

 that the thirteen years which separate 1884 from to-day have 

 witnessed among English people a development of oppcjrtunities 

 for physiological study such as no other like period has seen. 

 It is not without significance that only a year or two previous to 

 this period, in England proper, in little England, neither of the 

 ancient Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which, histor- 

 ically at least, represent the fullest acadAiiical aspirations of the 

 nation, possessed a chair of physiology ; the present professors, 

 who are the first, were both' appointed in 1883. Up to that 

 time the science of physiology had not been deemed worthy, by 

 either university, of a distinctive professorial mechanism. The 

 act of these ancient institutions was only a manifestation of 

 modern impulses, shared also by the metropolis and by the 

 provinces at large. Whereas up to that time the posts for teach- 

 ing physiology, by whatever name they were called, had been in 

 most cases held by men whose intellectual loins were girded for 

 other purposes than physiology, and who used the posts as step- 

 ping-stones for what they considered better things, since that 

 time, as each post became vacant, it has almost invariably been 

 filled by men wishing and purposing at least to devote their 

 whole energies to the science. Scotland, in many respects the 

 forerunner of England in intellectual matters, had not so much 

 need of change ; but she, too, has moved in the same direction, 

 as has also the sister island. 



And if we turn to this Western Continent, we find in Canada 

 and in the States the same notable enlargement of physiological 

 opportunity, or even a still more notable one. If the English- 

 speaking physiologist dots on the map each place on this 

 Western Hemisphere which is an academic focus of his science, 

 he may well be proud of the opportunities now afforded for 

 the development of English physiology ; and the greater part 

 of this has come within the last thirteen years. 



Professorial chairs or their analogues are, however, after all 

 but a small part of the provision for the development of physio- 

 logical science. The heart of physiology is the laboratory. It 

 is this which sends the life-blood through the frame ; and in 

 respect to this, perhaps, more than to anything else, has the 

 progress of the past thirteen years been striking. Doubtless, on 

 both sides of the waters there were physiological laboratories, 

 and good ones, in 1884 ; but how much have even these during 

 that period been enlarged and improved, and how many new 

 ones have been added ? In how many places, even right up to 

 about 1884, the professor or lecturer was fain to be content with 

 mere lecture experiments and a simple course of histology, with 

 perhaps a few chemical exercises for his students ! Now each 

 teacher, however modest his post, feels and says that the 

 authorities under whom he works are bound to provide him 

 with the means of leading his students along the only path by 

 which the science can be truly entered upon, that by which 

 each learner repeats for himself the fundamental observations on 

 which the science is based. 



But there is a still larger outcome from the professorial chair 

 and the physiological laboratory than the training of the student ; 

 these are opportunities not for teaching only, but also for re- 

 search. And perhaps in no respect has the development during 

 the past thirteen years been so marked as in this. Never so 

 clearly as during this period has it become recognised that each 

 post for teaching is no less a post for learning, that among 

 academic duties the making knowledge is as urgent as the dis- 

 tributing it, and that among professorial qualifications the gift 

 of garnering in new truths is at least as needful as facility in the 

 didactic exposition of old ones. Thirteen years has seen a great 

 change in this matter, and the progress has been perhaps greater 

 on this side of the water than on the other, so far as English- 

 speaking people are concerned. We on the other side have 

 witnessed with envy the establishment on this side of a univer- 

 sity, physiology having in it an honoured place, the keynote of 

 which is the development of original research. It will, I 

 ventur to think, be considered a strong confirmation of my 

 present theme that the Clark University at Worcester was 

 founded only ten years ago. 



And here, as an English-speaking person, may I be allowed to 

 point out, not without pride, that these thirteen years of increased 

 opportunity have been thirteen years of increased fruitfulness. 

 In the history of our science, among the names of the great men 

 who have made epochs, English names, from Harvey onwards, 

 occupy no mean place ; but the greatness of such great men is 



NO. T453. VOL. 56] 



of no national birth ; it comes as it lists, and is independent of 

 time and of place. If we turn to the more every-day workers, 

 whose continued labours more slowly build up the growing 

 edifice and provide the needful nourishment for the greatness of 

 which I have just spoken, we may, I will dare to say, aftirm that 

 the last thirteen years has brought contributions to physiology, 

 made known in the English tongue, which, whether we regard 

 their quantity or their quality, significantly outdo the like con- 

 tributions made in any foregoing period of the same length. 

 Those contributions have been equally as numerous, equally as 

 good on this side as on the other side of the waters. And here 

 I trust I shall be pardoned if personal ties and affection lead me 

 to throw in a personal word. May I not say that much which 

 has been done on this side has been directly or indirectly the 

 outcome of the energy and gifts of one whom I may fitly name 

 on an occasion such as this, since, though he belonged to the 

 other side, his physiological life was passed and his work was 

 done on this side, one who has been taken from us since this 

 Association last met, Henry Newell Martin ? 



Yes, during these thirteen years, if we put aside the loss of 

 comrades, physiology has been prosperous with us and the out- 

 look is bright ; but, as every cloud has its silver lining, so shadow 

 follows all sunshine, success brings danger, and something bitter 

 rises up amid the sweet of prosperity. The development of 

 which I have spoken is an outcome of the progressive activity 

 of the age, and the dominant note of that activity is heard in 

 the word "commercial." Noblemen and noblewomen open 

 shop, and every one, low as well as high, presses forward to- 

 wards large or quick profits. The very influences which 

 have made devotion to scientific inquiry a possible means 

 of livelihood, and so fostered scientific investigation, are 

 creating a new danger. The path of the professor was in 

 old times narrow and straight, and only the few who had a 

 real call cared to tread it ; nowadays there is some fear lest it 

 become so broad and so easy as to tempt those who are in no 

 way fitted for it. There is an increasing risk of men undertaking 

 a research, not because a question is crying out to them to be 

 answered, but in the hope that the publication of their results 

 may win for them a lucrative post. There is, moreover, an even 

 greater evil ahead. The man who lights on a new scientific 

 method holds the key of a chamber in which much gold may be 

 stored up ; and strong is the temptation for him to keep the new 

 knowledge to himself until he has filled his fill, while all the 

 time his brother-inquirers are wandering about in the dark 

 through lack of that which he possesses. Such a selfish with- 

 holding of new scientific truth is beginning to be not rare in 

 some branches of knowledge. May it never come near us ! 



Now I will, with your permis.sion, cease to sound the pro- 

 vincial note, and ask your attention for a few minutes while I 

 attempt to dwell on what seem to me to be some of the salient 

 features of the fruits of physiological activity, not among 

 English-speaking people only, but among all folk, during the 

 past thirteen years. 



When we review the records of research and discovery over 

 any lengthened period, we find that in every branch of the study 

 progress is irregular, that it ebbs and flows. At one time a par- 

 ticular problem occupies much attention, the periodicals are full 

 of memoirs about it, and many of the young bloods flesh their 

 maiden swords upon it. Then again for awhile it seems to lie 

 dormant and unheeded. But quite irrespective of this feature, 

 which seems to belong to all lines of inquiry, we may recognise • 

 two kinds of progress. On the one hand, in such a period, in 

 spite of the waves just mentioned, a steady advance continually 

 goes on in researches which were begun and pushed forward in 

 former periods, some of them being of very old date. On the 

 other hand, new lines of investigation, starting with quite new 

 ideas or rendered possible by the introduction of new methods, 

 are or may be begun. Such naturally attract great attention, 

 and give a special character to the period. 



In the past thirteen years we may recognise both these kinds 

 of progress. Of the former kind I might take, as an example, 

 the time-honoured problems of the mechanics of the circulation. 

 In spite of the labour which has been spent on these in times of 

 old, something always remains to be done, and the last thirteen 

 years have not been idle. The researches of Htirthle and 

 Tigerstedt, of Roy and Adami, not to mention others, have left 

 us wiser than we were before. So again, with the also old 

 problems of muscular contraction, progress, if not exciting, has 

 been real ; we are some steps measurably nearer an understand- 



