lxxiv REPORT — 1860. 



Sicily, flint implements were observed by Dr. Falconer, associated in such a 

 manner with the bones of extinct mammalia, as to lead him to infer that Man 

 must have coexisted with several lost species of quadrupeds; and M.deVibraye 

 has also this spring called attention to analogous conclusions at which he 

 has arrived, by studying the position of a human jaw with teeth, accom- 

 panied by the remains of a mammoth, under the stalagmite of the Grotto 

 d'Arcis near Troyes in France. 



In the recent progress of Physiology, I am informed that the feature per- 

 haps most deserving of note on this occasion is the more extended and suc- 

 cessful application of Chemistry, Physics, and the other collateral sciences 

 to the study of the Animal and Vegetable Economy. In proof I refer to 

 the great and steady advances which have, within the last few years, been 

 made in the chemical history of Nutrition, the statics and dynamics of the 

 blood, the investigation of the physical phenomena of the senses, and the 

 electricity of nerves and muscles. Even the velocity of the nerve-force 

 itself has been submitted to measurement. Moreover, when it is now de- 

 sired to apply the resources of Geometry or Analysis to the elucidation of 

 the phenomena of life, or to obtain a mathematical expression of a physiolo- 

 gical law, the first care of the investigator is to acquire precise experimental 

 data on which to proceed, instead of setting out with vague assumptions and 

 ending with a parade of misdirected skill, such as brought discredit on the 

 school of the mathematical physicians of the Newtonian period. 



But I cannot take leave of this department of knowledge without likewise 

 alluding to the progress made in scrutinizing the animal and vegetable 

 structure by means of the microscope — more particularly the intimate or- 

 ganization of the brain, spinal cord, and organs of the senses ; also to the 

 extension, through means of well-directed experiment, of our knowledge of 

 the functions of the nervous system, the course followed by sensorial im- 

 pressions and motorial excitement in the spinal cord, and the influence 

 exerted by or through the nervous centres on the movements of the heart, 

 blood-vessels and viscera, and on the activity of the secreting organs; — 

 subjects of inquiry, which, it may be observed, are closely related to the 

 question of the organic mechanism whereby our corporeal frame is influ- 

 enced by various mental conditions. 



And now, in conclusion, I may perhaps be permitted to express the hope 

 that the examples I have given of some of the researches and discoveries 

 which occupy the attention of the cultivators of science, may have tended to 

 illustrate the sublime nature, engrossing interest and paramount utility of 

 such pursuits, from which their beneficial influence in promoting the intel- 

 lectual progress and the happiness and well-being of mankind may well be 

 inferred. But let us assume that to any of the classical writers of antiquity, 

 sacred or profane, a sudden revelation had been made of all the wonders 

 involved in Creation accessible to man ; that to them had been disclosed not 

 only what we now know, but what we are to know hereafter, in some future 



