J46 REPOiiT— 1872. 



vour to justify — that oue great reason -wliy pliysiological researcli is less success- 

 fully pursued iu Englaud thau 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 

 liiglier training which is required for the production of scientific workers or 

 investigators ; secondly, to what may be called the education of public opinion, by 

 the popularizing agency of books and lectures ; and, lastly, to the introduction 

 of Natural Science as an element of education in our great schools and uni- 

 versities. 



If a man wants to be a physiologist 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 any thing 

 about the art of curing diseases. Practically, 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 course of medical study. I confess myself to be of the opinion that this 

 close relation between medicine and physiology is likely to be a permanent one, on 

 the general ground that any science is likely to bo studied witli 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 preeminence over all countries 

 in the mechanical arts that our possession of exceptionally great men in the ph)'- 

 sical sciences on which those arts are built is due. The reason why the same sort 

 of beneficial reaction of art upon science has not manifested itself in our own 

 sphere is, that the connexion between the two, i. e. between physiology and medi- 

 cine, is much less substantial. We physiologists 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 existing 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 ordinar}' 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 developed 

 far too fast for the resources of our schools. Physiologj'', which twenty years 

 ago might (witliout very fiagrant 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 relationship with the other expe- 

 rimental sciences, and particularly 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 ditt'erent was that time from the present as regards the 

 position of the science. I can only refer to one or two of the directions in which 

 irogress has been made. Take, for example, the exchange of gases iu respiration. 

 n 1852 aU that we knew on this subject was founded on the imperfect methods and 

 analyses of the physicist Magnus. Now Ludwig aud his pupils have put us in 

 possession of a knowledge which for exactitude may be compared with that of tlio 

 fundamental facts of physics. In 185:3 Ludwig had but lately written his earliest 

 papers on arterial pressure, and had thus, by the introduction of new methods, in- 

 augurated a new era in the physiology of the mechanical functions. Du Bois-Eey- 

 moud had scarcely begun that series of researches by which he, like Ludwig, rather 

 founded a new science than extended the limits of an old oue. In France Brov.-n- 

 Sequard had discovered the functions of vasomotor nerves, and Bernard the glyco- 

 genic function of the liver. 



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

 that of the influence which they exercised on the future progi-ess of science. How 

 rapid that progress has been may be readily judged of by any one Avho chooses 

 to read anv of the text-books of tweutv vears ago in the light of I'ecent researches. 



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