1882.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



30d 



cro-chemistry (if there be such a 

 thing as Micro-chemistry) will best 

 be read to chemists : that papers in 

 what are termed Micro-geology and 

 Micro-petrography will find readiest 

 and most appreciative listeners in the 

 Section of Geology. I would even 

 suggest that a paper on the Entomo- 

 straca or the Rotifera, particularly if 

 it deals with the morphology or the 

 systematic position of the form or 

 group in question, will find its normal 

 auditors among the zoologists in the 

 Section of Biology. 



What then remains to us ? I have 

 spoken of that department of science 

 whose investigations must in the na- 

 ture of things be carried on wholly by 

 the microscope, as being designated 

 by the organic name of the Section 

 as its particular field of labor. I say, 

 that department of science ; knowing 

 that the expression must call forth 

 that adverse criticism to which I have 

 alluded and to which I must now ad- 

 dress myself. It has been urged that 

 Histology is in substance but a finer 

 Anatomy ; a dissection made with the 

 eye where the scalpel cannot go ; at 

 best no better than the handmaid of 

 Physiology : and that to dignify it 

 with the rank of a distinct depart- 

 ment of science is to give to the ser- 

 vant the honors due to the mistress. 



This, I acknowledge, is the traditio- 

 nal view : and this unfortunately, 

 describes only too well the histology 

 that is too often studied and to often 

 taught to-day ; but I am persuaded 

 that the beginnings have already been 

 made of a newer and a greater histo- 

 logy than this ; the leaven that has 

 leavened the whole lump of biology in 

 the last quarter century is working 

 here as elsewhere ; and the resulting 

 recombination of ideas has given us a 

 conception of the significance of the 

 phenomena of cell-life of which a pre- 

 vious generation hardly dreamed. 



As a rich amd fertile soil whose 

 yearly harvests pay abundant rental 

 for its tillage may long overlay unsus- 

 pected mineral wealth of far greater 

 value, so it often happens that a dis- 



covery that proves itself at once of 

 great practical importance, may re- 

 main for a long time with its philoso- 

 phical significance unrecognized. 



The results of that inquiry into the 

 structure of the organs of living be- 

 ings which the immortal discoveries 

 and inventions of Lister and his con- 

 temporaries first made possible, were 

 found to have so much practical va- 

 lue to the physiologist that they were 

 at once appropriated to his use. 



This analysis did not at first go 

 beyond an idea of fibres, cells and 

 membranes ; it did not seek and only 

 vaguely dreamed of any kinship be- 

 tween them ; later, when, their essen- 

 tial affinity was at first surmised and 

 then demonstrated, the fact was, save 

 by a few, regarded as of secondary im- 

 portance to what had now come to be 

 commonly known as Physiological 

 Anatomy. 



To-day, however, the situation is 

 changing rapidly. The conception 

 long since advanced by one of the 

 greatest of living thinkers that the 

 continous processes of adjustment of 

 relation which make up all we know 

 of life are the resultant or algebraic 

 sum of the activities of the structural 

 elements which make up the living 

 being, and that organs and organisms 

 alike must be regarded as the conse- 

 quence of the integration of countless 

 cells or nucleated corpuscles, is year- 

 ly gaining wider acceptance. Some 

 one has said that the doctrine of the 

 survival of the fittest is the equator 

 of the sphere of biology : may I ex- 

 press the opinion that the conception 

 to which I have referred will one day 

 be for physiologists at least its prime 

 meridian ? However this may be, this 

 conception, it will be readly admitted, 

 has greatly enhanced the significance 

 and the dignity of the study of cell- 

 life. 



There is another and even more 

 important relation of Histology to Bi- 

 ology that is very apt to be overlooked 

 by those that regard it as adequately 

 described by the name of Physiologi- 

 cal Anatomy. I refer to its relation 



