OcTeBER 22, 1897. ] 
with many kinds of being, and with many 
things in each. But, somewhat as man, in 
one aspect a tiny fragment of the world, 
still more of the universe, in another 
aspect looms so great as to overshadow 
everything else, so the nervous system, 
seen from one point of view, is no more 
than a mere part of the whole organ- 
ism, but, seen from another point of view, 
seems by its importance to swallow up 
all the rest. As man is apt to look upon 
all other things as mainly subserving 
his interests and purposes, so the physiolo- 
gist, but with more justice, may regard all 
the rest of the body as mainly subserving 
the welfare of the nervous system ; and, as 
man was created last, so our natural knowl- 
edge of the working of that nervous system 
has been the latest in its growth. But, if 
there be any truth in what I have urged to- 
day, we are witnessing a growth which 
promises to beas rapid as it has seemed to be 
delayed. Little spirit of prophecy is needed 
to foretell that in the not so distant future the 
teacher of physiology will hurry over the 
themes on which he now dwells so long, 
in order that he may have time to ex- 
pound the most important of all the truths 
which he has to tell, those which have to do 
with the manifold workings of the brain. 
And I will be here so bold as to dare to 
point out that this development of his 
science must, in the times to come, influ- 
ence the attitude of the physiologist towards 
the world, and ought to influence the atti- 
tude of the world towards him. I imagine 
that if a plebiscite, limited even to instruc- 
ted, I might almost say scientific, men, 
were taken at the present moment, it would 
be found that the most prevalent concep- 
tion of physiology is that it is a something 
which is in some way an appendage to the 
art of medicine. That physiology is, and 
always must be, the basis of the science of 
healing, is so much a truism that I would 
not venture to repeat it here were it not 
SCIENCE, 
613 
that some of those enemies, alike to science 
and humanity, who are at times called 
anti-vivisectionists, and whose zeal often 
outruns, not only discretion, but even 
truth, have quite recently asserted that I 
think otherwise. Should such a halluei- 
nation ever threaten to possess me, I should 
only have to turn to the little we yet know 
of the physiology of the nervous system 
and remind myself how great a help the 
results of pure physiological curiosity—I 
repeat the words, pure physiological curi- 
osity, for curiosity is the mother of science 
—have been, alike to the surgeon and the 
physician, in the treatment of those in 
some way most afflicting maladies, the 
diseases of the nervous system. No, phys- 
iology is, and always must be, the basis 
of the science of healing; but it is some- 
thing more. When physiology is dealing 
with those parts of the body which we 
eall muscular, vascular, glandular tissues 
and the like, rightly handled she points 
out the way not only to mend that 
which is hurt, to repair the damages of 
bad usage and disease, but so to train the 
growing tissues and to guide the grown 
ones as that the best use may be made of 
them for the purposes of life. She not only 
heals, she governs and educates. Nor does 
she do otherwise when she comes to deal 
with the nervous tissues. Nay, it is the 
very prerogative of these nervous tissues 
that their life is above that of all the other 
tissues, contingent on the environment and 
susceptible of education. If increasing 
knowledge gives us increasing power so to 
mould a muscular fibre that it shall play 
to the best the part which it has to play 
in life, the little knowledge we at present 
possess gives us at least much confidence 
in a coming far greater power over the 
nerve cell. This is not the place to plunge 
into the deep waters of the relation which 
the body bears to the mind; but this at 
least stares us in the face, that changes in 
