98 THE NEW PHYSIOLOGY. 



duce obsolete Ideological conceptions into physiology 

 and medicine, but I shall not attempt to deal with this 

 reproach now. What I have tried to show is, that what- 

 ever may be the ultimate conclusion about teleology, 

 there can be no doubt that practical medicine is based 

 on a teleological conception of the working of the body, 

 and that because physiology, as ordinarily taught at 

 present, ignores this conception, there is but little living 

 contact between physiology and medicine as a curative 

 art. In other words, physiology, and with it the other 

 preparatory biological sciences, is not taking its true 

 place as Institutes of Medicine, to use the Scots name. 

 This is my diagnosis of the main underlying cause of 

 the want of connection between these sciences and 

 medicine. 



As to the remedy, this lies mainly in the hands of the 

 teachers ; but I think that the defect is now tending to 

 disappear. The days of too exclusive attention to muscle- 

 nerve preparations, the mere physical structure of dead 

 tissues, and the mere chemistry of the body fluids and 

 dead tissues, is past ; and human physiology is taking a 

 more and more important place in research and teaching. 

 With the human subject of experiment the teleological 

 mode of approaching physiological problems is inevitable , 

 and pari passu physiology is coming closer to medicine. 

 The study of immunity is also tending to bring pathology 

 closer. 



I have criticised the present-day teaching of physiology, 

 anatomy, and pathology, but I want now to urge with 

 all the emphasis I can, that whatever may be their 

 present shortcomings, the group of preliminary sciences 

 represented by physiology, anatomy, pathology, and 



