350 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE XIV 



denied within the recollection of most of us, and 

 perhaps still may be. 



Or, to take a case which affords a closer parallel 

 with that of medicine. Agriculture has been 

 cultivated from the earliest times, and, from a 

 remote antiquity, men have attained considerable 

 practical skill in the cultivation of the useful 

 plants, and have empirically established many 

 scientific truths concerning the conditions under 

 which they flourish. But, it is within the memory 

 of many of us, that chemistry on the one hand, 

 and vegetable physiology on the other, attained a 

 stage of development such that they were able to 

 furnish a sound basis for scientific agriculture. 

 Similarly, medicine took its rise in the practical 

 needs of mankind. At first, studied without 

 reference to any other branch of knowledge, it 

 long maintained, indeed still to some extent 

 maintains, that independence. Historically, its 

 connection with the biological sciences has been 

 slowly established, and the full extent and inti- 

 macy of that connection are only now beginning 

 to be apparent. I trust I have not been mistaken 

 in supposing that an attempt to give a brief 

 sketch of the steps by which a philosophical 

 necessity has become an historical reality, may 

 not be devoid of interest, possibly of instruction, 

 to the members of this great Congress, profoundly 

 interested as all are in the scientific development 

 of medicine. 



