704 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 



Section I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 



President of the Section — Professor Francis Gotch, 

 M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, AUGUSl 2. 



The President delivered the following Address :— 



' The investigators who are now working with such earnestness in all parts of 

 the world for the advance of physiology have before them a definite and well- 

 understood purpose, that purpose heing to acquire an exact knowledge of the 

 chemical and physical processes of animal life and of the self-acting machinery 

 by which they are regulated for the general good of the organism.' ' 



In this admirable and concise manner the late Sir John Burden Sanderson de- 

 scribed the aims and methods of phj'siology. The words were spoken in 1881, when 

 the British Association last met in this historic city. At that time the subjects of 

 Anatomy and Physiology formed a sub-section of the Section of Biology, and it 

 was presided over by this distinguished man, whose recent death has deprived not 

 only physiology but natural science of one of its most honoured leaders. His 

 continuous work, extending over a period of fifty years, was remarkable from 

 many points of view, but in none more than the extent of its scope. Sanitary 

 science, hygiene, practical medicine, botany, pathology, and physiology have all 

 been illuminated and extended by his researches. His claim for being included 

 among the great names in English science does not rest merely upon his acknow- 

 ledged eminence as an original and exact investigator, but also upon the influence 

 which, for four decades, he exerted upon other workers in medical science, endowing 

 their investigations with purpose and materially helping to give English physio- 

 logy and pathology their proper scientific status. Many circumstances contributed 

 to make this influence widely felt ; among these were the peculiar charm of his 

 manner, his striking and commanding personality, the genuine enthusiasm with 

 which he followed the work of others, the devotion with which he advocated 

 the use of experimental methods, his scientific achievements, and his extensive 

 knowledge. All these qualities of -mind and character marked him as one of 

 those great masters who inspire the work and mould the thought of a generation. 

 It is in tribute to his memory that, as one of his pupils and his successor in the 

 Oxford Chair of Physiology, I utilise this occasion for recalling such fruitful 

 features of his scientific conceptions as are expressed in the felicitous phrase which 

 I have quoted. 



Probably the most important of the many services which Burdon Sanderson 

 rendered to English medical science was that of helping to direct physiological 

 and pathological inquiry towards its proper goal. It will be admitted by all who 

 knew him intimately, that among his most characteristic scientific qualifications 

 were the insight with which he realised the essence of a physiological problem, 



' Address to the Sub-section of Anatomy and Physiology, by J. Burdon Sanderson, 

 British Association Report, York, 1881. 



