OCTOBER 22, 1897. ] 
years has brought contributions to physi- 
ology, made known in the English tongue, 
which, whether we regard their quanity 
or their quality, significantly outdo the 
like contributions made in any foregoing 
period of the same length. Those contri- 
butions 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 af- 
fection lead me to throw in a personal 
word. May I not say that much which 
has been done on this side has been di- 
rectly or indirectly the outcome of the en- 
ergy 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 out- 
look is bright ; but, as every cloud has its 
silver lining, so shadow follows all sun- 
shine, success brings danger, and some- 
thing bitter rises up amid the sweet of 
prosperity. The development of which I 
have spoken is an outcome of the progress- 
ive 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 pos- 
sible 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 eared to tread it ; 
nowadays there is some fear lest it becomes 
so broad and so easy as to tempt those who 
are in no way fitted forit. There is an in- 
creasing risk of men undertaking aresearch, 
SCIENCE. 
605 
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 him- 
self 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 with- 
holding of new scientific truth is beginning 
to be not rare in some branches of knowl- 
edge. 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 be some of 
the salient features of the fruits of physio- 
logical activity, not among English-speak- 
ing 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 periodicals are full of 
memoirs about it, and many of the young 
bloods flash their maiden swords upon it. 
Then again for a while it seems to lie dor- 
mant and unheeded. But quite irrespec- 
tive of this feature, which seems to belong 
to all lines of inquiry, we may recognize 
two kinds of progress. On the one hand, 
in such a period, in spite of the waves 
just mentioned, a steady advance con- 
tinually goes on in researches which were 
begun and pushed forward in former peri- 
ods, some of them being of very old date. 
On the other hand, new lines of investiga- 
tion, starting with quite new ideas or ren- 
dered possible by the introduction of new 
methods, are or may be begun. Such nat- 
