232 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



of the physiologist and bio-chemist, just 

 as the study of their derangements forms the 

 province of bacteriologist and pathologist. 

 Similarly the function of attempting to set 

 right or repair what is wrong, rests with 

 physician or surgeon, while the noblest and 

 as yet far too neglected profession of all is 

 that of the sanitarian or hygienist who is 

 charged with preventing affairs from going 

 wrong. When our social senses as a com- 

 munity become sufficiently developed, the 

 sanitarian turning to practical account the 

 discoveries of the others, will remove for us 

 half the deaths and four-fifths of the misery 

 and human torture which to-day we supinely 

 suffer. 



An example has been given above in the 

 case of the reproductive glands, of internal 

 secretion. This is one of the most wonderful 

 discoveries of the past generation. Although 

 the name " internal secretion," and the 

 idea of the course of events was introduced 

 by Brown-Sequard in France, it is largely 

 to the labours of Schafer and other British 

 physiologists, such as Bayliss and Starling, 

 that we owe many of our more recent advances 

 of knowledge in this entrancingly interesting 

 field of investigation. The chemical substances 

 contained in the internal secretions have 



