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32 ADDKESS DELIVERED TO THE 



chemical nor physical. For in proportion as the test-glass, 

 the galvanometer, and the kymograph, transfer successive 

 departments of organic science into the domains of chemistry 

 and physics, so much the more remarkable do the charac- 

 teristics of organic chemical action and of anatomical confi- 

 guration become, and all the more striking and peculiar are 

 the phenomena of consciousness felt to be. 



The characteristic peculiarity of chemical action in the 

 organism appears to consist in this, that certain of its pro- 

 ducts are such as are never met with in inorganic nature. It 

 would appear as if chemical force in the organism were under 

 the control of an influence which, while it confines that force 

 in the greater part of its function to a special form of action, 

 does not thereby render it less a chemical force than when it 

 acts in inorganic nature. 



In like manner, while the different forms in which phy- 

 sical force exhibits itself in the several domains of inorganic 

 nature are exhibited in the corresponding domains of the 

 living being, it nevertheless appears, in certain of its most 

 important departments, to be confined by some influence to a 

 manifestation of itself, such as it never exhibits beyond the 

 limits of organisation. 



As, however, some of the most striking features of organic 

 form have now at last been reduced to geometrical characters, 

 and subjected to mathematical analysis, there appears to be 

 no ground left for the assumption that all organic forms and 

 movements are not immediately or directly due to physical 

 forces, or do not admit of being investigated and determined 

 by the sole application of physico-mathematical methods. 



If, then, gentlemen, I have exhibited correctly the present 

 position of certain important departments of medical science, 

 what are its future prospects? It will, in the first place, 

 undoubtedly, as its several departments merge into the exact 

 sciences, assume gradually a more precise character, and 



