PHYSIOLOGY 1 



The historian who attempts to trace the development 

 of modern physiology (that is to say, physiology as an 

 experimental science based on physics and chemistry) 

 will find it necessary to refer constantly to the names 

 of the great French physiologists of the igth century, 

 Francois MAGENDIE and Claude BERNARD. While much 

 good work was being done in England at that period, 

 largely on anatomical lines, and in Germany Johannes 

 MULLER and his famous pupils were making notable 

 contributions to physiology and, indeed, to biology in 

 general, the really modern spirit of physiological research 

 found its most earnest advocates and exemplars in the 

 two French physiologists named. In his wonderful ex- 

 perimental lectures, given at the College de France, 

 MAGENDIE over and over again emphasized the impor- 

 tance of experimental investigation as opposed to specu- 

 lation and theorizing, and in his words and by his works 

 he indicated clearly the lines along which physiology 

 should advance, the lines in fact along which it has 

 advanced. His great pupil BERNARD, filled with his 

 master's spirit, and endowed with a scientific mind of 

 the first order, made those remarkable discoveries which 

 entitle him to be ranked as the greatest physiologist 

 that the world has produced. At that time physiology 

 was the sole experimental medical science; and the great 

 influence exerted by these two men made itself felt not 

 only upon the subsequent development of physiology 



1 [Drafting Committee: WM. H. HOWELL, Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity. ED.] 



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