PRESENT PROBLEMS OF PHYSIOLOGY 419 



who designate themselves as physiologists may less and less frequently 

 give their own hands to such work. We who are physiologists should 

 not be lukewarm nor too critical in our attitude toward the work of 

 the specialist. Those who undertake the solution of the problems of 

 medicine find a large and sympathetic audience; their work wins 

 quick recognition, and oftentimes substantial rewards; while those 

 who attempt the more special and peculiar work of the science of 

 physiology are not likely to attract the attention or the interest of 

 physicians; they must look to their colleagues for encouragement 

 and recognition. What has happened to physiology in this matter 

 of its relation to medicine will eventually be true of the other medical 

 sciences. The tendency is already well developed in the subject of 

 anatomy. The specialist in this subject is no longer interested chiefly 

 in the surgical or medical bearing of his problems; he has questions 

 of his own that look toward the understanding of the great laws of 

 growth and development. Medicine should not wish to keep its child- 

 ren forever tied to its own apron-strings. In proportion as they 

 develop normally and healthfully, they must look forward to an inde- 

 pendent existence, and the great mother doubtless will find most 

 honor and help from her offspring as they reach their maturity and 

 contribute to her support otherwise than by immediate hand-service. 

 It has been inevitable also that the development of physiology as 

 an experimental science should cause it to grow away from the other 

 biological sciences. Anatomy and the morphological side of botany 

 and zoology are observational sciences, and their methods vary widely 

 from those employed in physiology. It is still true, of course, that 

 purely anatomical work may furnish important data for physiological 

 conclusions, for .instance, in the physiology of the nervous system; yet 

 the tendency of physiology is and has been to depart from such meth- 

 ods, and there has become apparent an increasing lack of sympathy, 

 a lessening of mutual understanding of each other's work between the 

 anatomist and the physiologist. We cannot expect the old relation- 

 ship to be renewed by a return of physiology to its ancient methods. 

 On the contrary, if there is to be a restoration of the former close 

 union, the advance must come from the side of anatomy. Many of the 

 problems of this latter science will eventually call for the test of 

 experiment, and even now an increasing number of its workers are 

 occupying, as it were, a middle ground between the two subjects, 

 deriving their problems from the side of anatomy and their methods 

 from the side of physiology. Through the influence of this band of 

 workers it is possible that the two sciences may be brought more 

 closely into touch with each other than has been the case for the last 

 few decades. But while the bond between physiologist and biologist 

 has been less cordial than in former years physiology has found a com- 

 pensation in the ever-increasing intimacy of its relationships with 



