HUNTERIAN ORATION. 25 



knowledge of anatomy, both human and 

 comparative; for any reasoning with respect 

 to function which is incompatible with the 

 facts relating to structure must be invalid. 

 He saw no mode by which function could 

 be scientifically investigated, except by ex- 

 periments made on living animals ; yet in 

 detailing these, we find frequent evidences 

 of his being disturbed by those " compunc- 

 tious visitings of nature" w^hich every good 

 mind must necessarily feel at inflicting suf- 

 ferings on unresisting or subdued sensitive 

 creatures, over which nature has given us 

 dominion. He examined all the principal 

 vital functions with particular attention, yet 

 he found no spring of vital action except in 

 irritability, which he believed to be a pro- 

 perty of the muscular fibre alone. He in- 

 vestigated the process of formation, both 

 in the growth and reparation of bones, and 

 in the formation of the embryon in the 

 egg, which he believed to be developed. 

 It was not, however, till after thirty years 

 of labour that he thought himself warranted 

 to publish his Elementa Physiologiae, a work 

 that certainly contains all that was then 

 known on physiology, together with the 

 alterations and improvements made by his 



