SECTION I.— PHYSIOLOGY. 



HEAT PRODUCTION, NUTRITION, 

 AND GROWTH IN MAN- 

 SOME NEW VIEWS. 



ADDRESS BY 



E. P. POULTON, M.A., D.M., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Section I is the Section of Physiology of the British Association ; but 

 its deliberations have commonly traversed a wider ground than might 

 have been anticipated from this title and the Section of ' Medical Sciences ' 

 — the ' Institutes of Medicine ' of the Scottish Universities — might be a 

 truer description, though I do not wish you to infer that pure physiology 

 has been neglected. In doing me the honour of asking me to preside for 

 this year, I feel that you have taken this wider aspect into account, so 

 that before dealing with the technical part of my Address, I may be 

 allowed to give my view on one disquieting tendency that relates to the 

 Voluntary Hospital system and the health of the community. The 

 facilities for medical research in this country have increased out of all 

 proportion since 1914, when the Medical Research Committee (forerunner 

 of the Medical Research Council) was formed, and I should not like to miss 

 this opportunity of paying my tribute to Lord Nuffield for his unique 

 benefaction to my old University. But, if we except the whole-time 

 research and teaching posts, there are still funds available to pay the 

 research expenses of those who are willing to give their spare time to 

 medical research in the course of their teaching and practice. As one 

 who has benefited by this, as I think, wise provision, I am anxious that 

 my successors should not be less favourably situated, and I would appeal 

 to those with funds to distribute not to neglect this need in their desire 

 to provide for whole-time research posts. 



If the present outlook of medical research is relatively bright from the 

 financial point of view, how about its application in medical practice ? 

 Here the story is different. If the result can be taken in the form of a 

 pill its popularity is assured and valuable advances in treatment have 

 been achieved ; but if the discovery means that some trouble must be 

 taken or an apparatus purchased, then, however valuable, in some parts 

 of the country it will remain unused for years, and for this I am afraid 

 the straitened circumstances of the voluntary hospitals must be held 

 largely responsible. At present few voluntary hospitals will spend 



