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intentional. As an instance of the unintentional may be 

 mentioned the practice which has obtained in medical schools 

 and on examining boards — a practice which, I am happy to say, 

 is gradually being discarded — of appointing as teachers and 

 examiners in Physiology men who may have a good general 

 knowledge of the science, yet with whom it is not the business 

 of their lives ; and who cannot, therefore, be expected to be as 

 familiar with its details, and absorbed in its interests, as those 

 who devote their entire time and attention to its pursuit. 



The more virulent opposition, in some measure, to science 

 generally, but in the greatest measure to Physiology, appeared 

 almost simultaneously with the active revival of the subject. 

 This opposition, which has come to be known as the Anti-vivi- 

 .■•ection Movement, but which might equally well be called the 

 Anti-scientitic Agitation, has hitherto met with no measure of 

 success, except that it has to a certain extent hampered the full 

 development of the science by diverting to its defence some of 

 he energy which might be devoted to its pursuit. Indeed, the 

 actual results of this unreasoning agitation furnish an illustration 

 uf the old-established principle that persecution of a good cause 

 will in the long run tend towards its development and 

 propagation. And in this case the chief results have been the 

 following : — 



(1) The most immediate effect of the anti-vivisectionist attack 

 was the establishment of the Physiological Society, which in the 

 first instance was only a small gathering of working physiologists, 

 who met to discuss measures of defence in a drawing-room in 

 Queen Anne Street. This society, which had such a small be- 

 gmning, is now large and important. Its doors are besieged 

 by applicants for admission, although it is a necessity for such 

 .admission that the applicant be either a teacher of Physiology 

 or a worker at Physiology, or both. Its numerical strength has 

 grown from ten to fifteen to more than 150; and its numbers 

 are every year increasing. .\nd, besides the work which it has 

 done in this country in promoting the interests of Physiology, 

 and co-operation between English physiologists, it has succeeded 

 in establishing a succession of triennial International Congresses 

 of Physiology, which are amongst the most successful of such 

 gatherings, and which have been the means of bringing us into 

 communication with the most prominent physiological workers 

 and teachers on the continent. 



(2) \ second result of the agitation was the passing of the so- 

 called Cruelty to .\nimals Act. This Act, which was intended 

 to restrict the performance of experiments upon animals, was in 

 no sense called for, since it had been found by a Royal Com- 

 mission that there was no evidence to show that there had been 

 unnecessary experimentation upon animals, or any desire on the 

 part of physiologists to neglect the use of anaesthetics. Un the 

 other hand, it is of inestimable .advantage in that it gives the 

 public a definite guarantee that the excesses of which physiolo- 

 gists used to be freely accused are not possible. Such excesses 

 never did actually occur ; although, to believe all the publica- 

 tions which have been issued by Anti-vivisection Societies, one 

 would come to the conclusion that a physiologist is a being who 

 spends his whole time in torturing sensitive creatures, careless 

 of the suffering which he may cause, or even of the scientific 

 results which he may obtain. The fanatical supporters of the 

 agitation would have you to believe that we are all neither more 

 nor less than "fiends"; they cry with Ferdinand that "hell 

 is empty and all the devils are here." 



I am told there was even a feeling of this sort in this Uni- 

 versity at the time when it was proposed to establish the 

 Wayneflete Professorship of Physiology, and that an agitation 

 was set on loot having for its objeci, first, the prevention of 

 the establishment of such professorship ; and secondly, that 

 being impossible, the prevention of the professor's practising 

 physiology. The common-sense of the University stifled this 

 agitation, and the more intimate acquaintance with physiologists, 

 which has resulted from the esla'ilishment of the school, has 

 been sufficient, I believe, to smother the little fire which was 

 still left smouldering. 



(3) A third result of the Anti-vivisection .Vgitation was the 

 establishment of the Association for the Advancement of Medicine 

 by Research. This immediately followed a unanimous 

 resolution of the International Medical Congressof 18S1, affirm- 

 ing the necessity of experiments upon animals. To the ignorant 

 accusation that physiological experiments had been and were of 

 no use or influence in the advancement of medicine, the leaders 

 of the profession unanimously affirmed that it is upon Physiology 



hat .Medicine and Surgery are based, and that there can be no 



NO. 1295, VOL. 50] 



real progress in those sciences without a corresponding progress 

 in experimental Physiology and Pathology. The Association 

 for the .\dvancement of Medicine by Research has been of the 

 greatest possible value and assistance to Physiology in this 

 country. It has shown physiologists that they have the great 

 medical profession at their back, and it has acted as an im- 

 partial and independent medium of communication between 

 physiologists and the successive Secretaries of State, whose 

 business it has been to administer the Act. 



(4) A fourth result of the attacks of the anti-vivisectionists 

 has been, I may perhaps be permitted to believe, the re-estab- 

 lishment of this .Section of Physiology of the British Association. 

 Those who were present at the meeting of the Association in 

 Nottingham may have remarked that the gutters of that town 

 were strewn with papers which had been forced upon the mem- 

 bers of the Association by the anti-vivisectors of the place. 

 This literature, which in a double sense may be termed "gutter 

 literature," teemed with flagrant misstatements, and with 

 vicious calumnies, directed against physiologists, and especially 

 called forth, I presume, by the fact that for the first time in the 

 history of the British Association a physiologist was called upon 

 to occupy the presidential chair. We may look upon the estab- 

 lishment of this Section as the reply of the Association to the 

 false witness which was borne against us at Nottingham. 



But although a special section for Physiology has been re- 

 established, it may not be advantageous that there should be one 

 at every meeting of the Association. Physiology is above all 

 things a practical science. It requires laboratories and means 

 of demonstration. Physiologists are rarely satisfied with the 

 opportunity of hearing and reading papers, but require that, as 

 much as possible, the actual methods of research employed 

 should be capable of demonstration. By this I am not to be 

 supposed to advocate the demonstration of experiments upon 

 ani mals, for there are very many subjects in Physiology which can 

 be both worked at and illustrated in a manner involving in no 

 sense whatever the word vivisection. But in order that the 

 methods should be shown, it is important to have the appliances 

 of a laboratory at hand, and the Association frequently meets 

 in towns which are not university towns, and have no labora- 

 tories, in which, therefore, it would be difficult or impossible 

 to arrange for.demonstralions of the sort that I am alluding to. 

 On this account we may well imitate the practice of the British 

 Medical Association, which establishes a Section of Physiology 

 only when its meetings are held in such a centre as is likely by 

 the applicances which are to be found in that centre to render 

 the Section useful and efficient. Hence, in recommending the 

 establishment of a Physiological Section, it is expressly reserved 

 that the Section shall be neld only at such future meetings as 

 may seem to the council to be desirable. 



I will now invite you to consider with me one or 

 two of the more obscure subjects in the range of 

 Physiology, subjects which are, however creating a great, 

 almost an absorbing, interest at the present moment The first 

 of these subjects relates to the structure and function of every 

 cell in the body. All are aware that the body of every animal 

 and of every plant is made up of minute corpuscles which are 

 formed of protoplasm, and which contain in every case at least 

 one nucleus. The protoplasm and the nucleus form the living 

 substance of the cell. Other substances may be present, but 

 they are, in a sense, outside the nucleus and protoplasm, not 

 incorporated with their substance. .-Vpart from a few details 

 relating to the stiuciure of the nucleus, this was, until quite 

 lately, practically all that we knew regarding the parts com- 

 posing either the animal or the vegetable cell. There appears, 

 however, to be yet another something which, although in point 

 of size is of very insignificant dimensions, yet in point of func- 

 tion may perhaps be looked upon as transcending in importance, 

 in some respects, both the protoplasm and the nucleus. Not 

 many years ago it was noticed by various observers that in 

 certain specialised animal cells the protoplasm showed a ten- 

 dency to radiate from or converge towards a particular point, 

 and on further investigation it was found that at this point 

 there was a minute particle. This observation, which began, 

 as we have seen, upon specialised cells, was, after a little while, 

 found to hold good for other and yet other cells, until, at the 

 present time, we believe that in every cell of the animal or 

 plant body such a particle exists Now, it may well be asked, 

 why after all should so great importance be attached to this 

 observation? To this it may be replied that, in the first place, 

 it is of importance, because it shows conclusively that the 



