1236 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



tion, human, social and organic together. Thus more and better 

 than all the Mechano-technic age of applied physical science has 

 accomplished, the incipient Bio-technic age, vitally equipped with 

 bio-psycho-social science, has still to do. The increasing victories 

 of medicine and hygiene as over malaria, hookworm, sleeping- 

 sickness, etc., in the tropical world, are surely each an inspiring 

 earnest that a world-renewal is beginning, and that its continuance 

 is within our powers, since at our doors. 



Human Anatomy in Progress to New Applications. — Among 

 all the biological sciences, human anatomy is generally, from the 

 viewpoint cf the others, considered the most advanced and settled, 

 indeed the nearest to its limit; and this opinion seems common 

 among anatomists themselves, and also the surgeons and physicians 

 who utilise their extensive and accurate knowledge. It is refreshing, 

 however, to hear as to this the different views of a thoughtful and 

 critical minority. Thus to cite Prof. Sir Auckland Geddes, "ana- 

 tomy is one of the most backward of all the sciences" and "hardly 

 beyond the stage of isolated observations. . . . Not yet has the stage 

 been reached, when from a study of the surface appearances we 

 can tell with tolerable certainty the arrangements and proportion 

 of the hidden parts ; and yet towards that end anatomy is striving. 

 An anatomical-pathological-clinical system is needed, with its 

 formula thus — Superficial and visible structural peculiarity A is 

 a mark of internal and invisible structure B ; this a type of a bodily 

 organisation D; and this is a mark of, it may be a cause of, a lia- 

 bility to develop morbidity E. From the different types of growth 

 of hair, it is sometimes possible to form an accurate estimate of the 

 efficiency of the supra-renal bodies and of the liver; and from the 

 proportionate length of the limb-bones it is possible to judge the 

 activity of the reproductive glands. The date at which the epiphyses 

 close is conditioned by the state of the reproductive cells; and in 

 later injury in epiphysial regions a surgeon who fails to consider 

 the sexual hair of the face or body may be misled in his diagnosis. 

 A large development of thoracic subcutaneous veins gives warning 

 of liability to tuberculosis". . . . Thus anatomy may "advance from 

 being a pure descriptive science until it becomes an inductive science, 

 which will carry on its shoulders the preventive medicine that deals 

 with man, that strives to develop man's dormant possibilities to 

 the highest pitch, that he may move through this microbe-infested 

 world uninfected and undismayed. ... As the correlation of 

 structural peculiarities with liabilities becomes more certain, so 

 will the methods of inducing favourable alterations in the structure 

 of the body become more sure". 



Comment here is beyond our depth, save to note that reflection 

 is evidently needed, and towards further investigation upon all 

 these deepening levels. Yet also to wonder if there were not already 



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