942 REPORT—1896. 
Section I.—PHYSIOLOGY (including ExperimenraL PatHoioey and 
EXPERIMENTAL PsycHOLOGyY). 
PRESIDENT OF THE SectTion.—W. H. GasKELL, M.D., LL.D., M.A., 
E.R.S. 
The PresrpenT delivered the following Address on Monday, September 21. 
WueEn I received the honour of an invitation to preside at the Physiological 
Section of the British Association, my thoughts naturally turned to the subject of 
the Presidential Address, and it seemed to me that the traditions of the British 
Association, as well as the fact that a Physiological Section was a comparatively 
new thing, both pointed to the choice of a subject of general biological interest 
rather than a special physiological topic ; and I was the more encouraged to choose 
such a subject because I look upon the growing separation of physiology from 
morphology as a serious evil, and detrimental to both scientific subjects. I was 
further encouraged to do so by the thought that, after all, a large amount of the 
work done in physiological laboratories is anatomical—either minute anatomy or 
topographical anatomy, such as the tracing out of the course of nerve-fibre tracts 
in the central and peripheral nervous system by physiological methods. Such 
methods require to be supplemented by the morphological method of inquiry. If 
we can trace up step by step the increasing complexity of the vertebrate central 
nervous system ; if we can unravel its complex nature, and determine the original 
simpler paths of its conducting fibres, and the original constitution of the special 
nerve centres, then it is clear that the method of comparative anatomy would be 
of immense assistance to the study of the physiology of the central nervous system 
of the higher vertebrates. So also with numbers of other physiological problems, 
such as, for instance, the question whether all muscular substances are supplied 
with inhibitory as well as motor nerves; to which is closely allied the question of 
the nature of the mechanism by which antagonistic muscles work harmoniously 
together. Such questions receive their explanation in the researches of Biedermann 
on the nerves of the opening and closing muscles of the claw of the crayfish, as 
soon as it has been shown that a genetic relationship exists between the nervous 
system and muscles of the crayfish and those of the vertebrate. 
Take another question of great interest in the present day, viz. the function 
of such ductless glands as the thyroid and the pituitary glands. The explanation 
of such function must depend upon the original function of these glands, and 
cannot, therefore, be satisfactory until it has been shown by the study of compara- 
tive anatomy how these glands have arisen. The nature of the leucocytes of the 
blood and lymph spaces, the chemical problems involved in the assigning of carti- 
lage into its proper group of mucin compounds, and a number of other questions 
of physiological chemistry, will all advance a step nearer solution as soon as we 
definitely know from what group of invertebrates the vertebrate has arisen. 
I have therefore determined to choose as the subject of my address ‘The 
