TRA>-S ACTIONS OF SECTION I. 801 



An<l hei-e, as an English-speaking person, may I be allowed to point out, not 

 v7ithout pride, that these thirteen years of increased opportunity hav* been 

 thirteen years of increased fruitfulness. In the history of our science, among the 

 names of the great men who have made epochs, English names, from Harvey 

 onwards, occupy no mean place ; but the greatness of such great men is of no 

 national birth ; it comes as it lists, and is independent of time and of place. If 

 we turn to the more everyday workers, whose continued labours more slowly 

 build up the growing edifice and provide the needful nourishment for the greatness 

 of which I have just spoken, we may, I will dare to say, affirm that the last 

 thirteen years has brought contributions to physiologj', made known in the 

 English tongue, which, whether we regard their quantity or their quality, signifi- 

 cantly outdo the like contributions made in any foregoing period of the same 

 length. Those contributions have been equally as numerous, equally as good on 

 this side as on the other side of the waters. And here I trust I shall be pardoned 

 if personal ties and affection lead me to throw in a personal word. May I not 

 say that much which has been done on this side has been directly or indirectly the 

 outcome of the energy and gifts of one whom I may fitly name on an occasion such 

 as this, since, though he belonged to the other side, his physiological life was passed 

 and his work was done on this side, one who has been taken from us since this 

 Association last met, Henry Newell Martin ? 



Yes, during these thirteen years, if we put aside the loss of comrades, physiology 

 has been prosperous with us and the outlook is bright ; but, as every cloud has its 

 silver lining, so shadow follows all sunshine, success brings danger, and something 

 bitter rises up amid the sweet of prosperity. The development of which I have 

 spoken is an outcome of the progressive activity of the age, and the dominant note 

 of that activity is heard in the word ' commercial.' Noblemen and noblewomen 

 open shop, and every one, low as well as high, presses forward towards large or 

 quick profits. The very influences which have made devotion to scientific inquiry 

 a possible means of livelihood, and so fostered scientific investigation, are creating 

 a new danger. The path of the professor was in old times narrow and strait, and 

 only the few who had a real call cared to tread it ; nowadays there is some fear 

 lest it become so broad and so easy as to tempt those who are in no way fitted for 

 it. There is an increasing risk of men undertaking a research, not because a 

 question is crying out to them to be answered, but in the hope that the publication 

 of their results may win for them a lucrative post. There is, moreover, an even 

 greater evil ahead. The man who lights on a new scientific method holds the key 

 of a chamber in which much gold may be stored up ; and strong is the temptation 

 for him to keep the new knowledge to himself until he has filled his fill, while all 

 the time his brother-inquirers are wandering about in the dark through lack of that 

 which he possesses. Such a selfish withholding of new scientific truth is beginning 

 to be not rare in some branches of knowledge. May it never come near us ! 



Now I will, with your permission, cease to sound the provincial note, and ask 

 your attention for a few minutes while I attempt to dwell on what seem to me to 

 1)6 some of the salient features of the fruits of physiological activity, not among 

 English-speaking people only, but among all folk, during the past thirteen years. 



When we review the records of research and discovery over any lengthened 

 period, we find that in every branch of the study progress is irregular, that it ebbs 

 and flows. At one time a particular problem occupies much attention, the peri- 

 odicals are fall of memoirs about it, and many of the young bloods flesh their 

 maiden swords upon it. Then again for awhile it seems to lie dormant and 

 unheeded. But quite irrespective of this feature, which seems to belong to all 

 lines of inquiry, we may recognise two kinds of progress. On the one baud, in 

 such a period, in spite of the waves just mentioned, a steady advance continually 

 goes on in researches which were begun and pushed forward in former periods, 

 some of them being of very old date. On the other hand, new lines of investiga- 

 I tion, starting with quite new ideas or rendered possible by the introduction of 

 " new methods, are or may be begun. Such naturally attract great attention, and 

 give a special character to the period. 



1897. 3 P 



