Al{g. 22, 1872J 



NATURE 



339 



Progi-css of Physiological Research during the past year. I had 

 intended to do so, but was led to abandon my intentions on the 

 ground that althougli the work done has not been inconsiderable, 

 we in England have taken very little part in it. If I had 

 attempted the task, I should have been but chronicling the 

 doings of our friends in Germany, who are now holding their 

 o.vn .scientific assembly in Leipzig. As I do not wish to talk 

 about German physiologists to-day, I find it more agreeable and 

 ntore encouraging to look forward than to look back ; for al- 

 though we English physiologists (I say physiologists advisedly, 

 because the anatomist is not in the same position) must admit 

 with rei;ret that we have had very little to do with the unprece- 

 dented development of our science during the last two decades, 

 we do not intend to continue in the same inactive condition in 

 future. 



Considering that half the purpose of our meeting in this section 

 is to promote the progress of physiology, I do not think I can more 

 properly occupy your time than in endeavouring to show in what 

 direction efforts must be made to improve its position, and par- 

 ticularly to secure a future more fruitful of substantial results 

 than the past has been. 



I shall begin by asserting a general principle, which, as I go 

 on, I shall endeavour to justify — that one great reason why 

 physiological research is less successfully pursued in England 

 than we could wish it to be, lies in the general want of scientific 

 education. In illustration of this position, I shall refer first to 

 that higher training which is required for the production of scien- 

 tific workers or investigators ; secondly to what may be called 

 the education of public opinion, by the popularising agency of 

 bonks and lectures ; and lastly to the introduction of Natural 

 Science as an element of education in our great schools and 

 universities. 



Training of scientific workers. — If a man wants to be a physio- 

 logist, he must, as things at present stand, study medicine. 

 There is no logical reason for this ; for, although medicine ought 

 to be built on physiology, there is no reason why a physiologist 

 should know anything about the art of curing diseases. Practi- 

 cally, however, it is the case that the kind of education which a 

 man requires in order to be a physiologist is best obtained 

 through a courte of medical study. I confess myself to be of 

 the opinion that this close relation between medicine and physio- 

 logy is hkely to be a permanent one, on the general ground that 

 any science is likely to be studied with more earnestness by those 

 who have to practise an art founded upon it than by others. For 

 example, in England there can be little doubt that it is to our 

 pre-eminence overall countries in the mechanical arts that our 

 exceptionally greater men in the physical sciences on which those 

 arts are built, is due. The reason why the same sort of benefi- 

 cial reaction of art upon science has not manifested itself in our 

 own sphere is that the connection between the two, i.e., between 

 physiology and medicine, is much less substantial. We physiolo- 

 gists are not yet in a position to advise the doctors, and they, 

 resting on the more reliable teaching of experience, are quite 

 willing to do without us. 



If I am right in supposing that the pursuit of physiological 

 research will always be closely connected with medical study, it 

 becomes a matter of interest to us to know in how far the exist- 

 ing institutions for teaching are fitted for the training of scientific 

 men. 



We, who are personally concerned in the teaching of medicine, 

 must, I think, admit that, as regards English schools, an ordi- 

 nary medical course is not a very good preparation for scientific 

 work. The reason of this is that the "medical sciences" as 

 they are called — chemistry, anatomy, and physiology— have de- 

 veluped far too fast for the resources of our schools. Physiology, 

 which twenty years ago might (without very flagrant absurdity) 

 have been called the handmaid of medicine, has become a 

 great science quite independent of the art which brought her into 

 existence. No longer learning from medicine as she used to do, 

 but based entirely on experiment, she claims much closer rela- 

 tionship with the other experimental sciences, and particularly, 

 of course, with physics and chemistry, than with her parent art. 



Let us suppose ourselves carried back, say twenty years. 

 Twenty years ago a lecture-room, with a gallery for showing 

 preparations under the microscope, was all that was thought 

 necessary for teaching physiology, even in the best appointed 

 schools ; but then how dilTerent was that time from the present as 

 regards the position of the science. I can only refer to one or 

 two of the directious in which progress has been made. All 

 that we knew twenty years ago about the gases of the blood 



was founded on the imperfect methods and erroneous results of 

 Magous. Take, for example, the exchange of gases in respira- 

 tion. In 1852 all that we knew on this Sibject was founded on 

 the imperfect methods and analyses of the physicist Magnus. 

 Now Luilwig and his pupils have put us in possesion of a 

 knowledge which for exictilude may be compared wit^ that of 

 the fundamental facts of physics, with methods directly ap- 

 plicable to a number of mo^t important questions. The same 

 physiologist, Ludwig, had lately written his earliest pipers on 

 arterial pressure, and has thus by the introduction of new 

 methods inaugurated a new era in the phy.dology ot two mech mi- 

 cal functions. Du Bois Reymond has scircely begun that series 

 of researches by which he, like Ludwig, raher founded a new 

 science than extended the limits of an old one. In France 

 Brown-Sequard had discovered the functions of vasomotor 

 nerves, and Bernard the glycogenic function of the liver. 



Great as was the intrinsic value of all these investigations, it 

 was surpassed by that of the inlluence which they exercised on 

 the future progress of science. How rapid that progress has 

 been may be readily judged of by any one who chouses to read 

 any of the text-books of twenty years ago in the light of recent 

 researches. With the exception of the somewhat obscure region 

 of what is called animal chemistry, every chapter has been re- 

 written on the sure basis of direct observation anl experiment, 

 the mechanics of the circulation, the chemical changes in the 

 blood and tissues in respiration, the relation between muscular 

 movements and the central organs of the nervous system, wliich 

 preside over them, the electrical changes which go on in nerves 

 and muscles when in and out of action, and in physiological 

 histology, the mode of central and peripheral termination of 

 nerve fibres, and the anatomy of the lymphatic glands and the 

 mode of origin of the absorbent system in the tissues. 



In this great progress one would rather not have to admit that 

 Germany has done so Urge a proportion of the work ; for 

 France, notwithstanding her great leaders in science and her 

 great scientific institutions, has accomplished much less thin 

 she ought to have done. In taking her part England has b.-en 

 represented by us, the teachers in her medic il schools ; bat we, 

 possessing neither space nor appliances for the prosecution of 

 experimental inquiries, have contented ourselves only too readily 

 to reap the fruits of other men's labours. 



It would not be pleasant to mike this admission, were it not 

 possible to look forward with considerable confidence to some- 

 thing better. In the great medical schools of London, in the 

 old Univer.-,ities, and in one or two, at least, of the provincial 

 schools, great efforts are now being made to provide adequate 

 buildings and competent persons for the experimental teaching 

 and study of physiology. It is, I think, a most encouraging 

 sign of the times that the initiative in this movement has been 

 taken by Trinity College, Cambridge. That wealthy corporation, 

 whose very name recaUs to our recollection the intellectual 

 glories of our country, has condescended to provide a place for 

 physiologists to study and labour in, from which (short though 

 the time is for which it has existed) one or two valuable re- 

 searches have already sjirung. To what the University of Lon- 

 don has done during the last twelve months in establishing a 

 laboratory for inquiries into that most important though com- 

 paratively new branch of physiology which relates to the 

 origin and nature of diseases, it is scarcely possible for me to 

 refer, excepting in so far as to express my hope that its influence 

 will eventually be felt in strengthening the hold of physiology 

 on practical medicine. 



Notwithstanding these elTirts, it will take years to regain the 

 position which we in England once had, and ought never to 

 have lost. The appliances and places for work are now forth- 

 coming, and can be extended as they are required. This is a 

 great step forwards, but we still want the pecuniary resources 

 requisite for carrying out systematic and continuous researches, 

 and above all, we have still to educate workers. 



Of the two wants I have mentioned, the want of money and 

 the want of workers, the second is the most important. The 

 difficulties which lie in our way in this respect are very great 

 indeed. The obvious difficulty — the objection, I mean — which 

 is always adduced by young men a; a sufficient reason for not 

 giving up their time to scientific research, is that it does not pay ; 

 but it need scarcely be said that the real difficulty is a more 

 general one. It lies in that practical tendency of the national mind 

 which leads us Englishmen to underrate or depreciate any kind 

 of knowledge which does not minister directly to personal com- 

 fort or advantage, a tendency which was embodied in the 



