INTRODUCTION 13 



in regard to particular tissues, or organs, or the entire 

 organism. 



Thus we are convinced that the cause of the advance- 

 ment of science generally and the great human desider- 

 atum, the application of that advancement to the needs 

 of the suffering, will be stimulated and made subservient 

 to the wants of mankind. 



As the discovery of the circulation of the blood was 

 the Open Sesame of the scientific anatomist, so it still 

 provides a key whereby can be opened gateways into the 

 byepaths of anatomical and physiological research, which 

 have but to be entered to reveal the great fact that our 

 knowledge, however advanced, is still very finite, and that 

 there still lies ahead much that is unexplored, but which 

 may be made more approachable and accessible along the 

 lines of simplicity and continuity. 



Every new, or fresh, discovery, moreover, reveals the 

 fact that nature's ways and methods are universally simple 

 and direct, and that they are absolutely continuous in their 

 operation and consistent in their results. 



