GENERAL PHYSIOLOaY 



CHAPTER I 



THE AIMS AND METHODS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 



In every department of human culture a survey of its aims and 

 its achievements is desirable. Such a survey is, in a certain sense, 

 a map ; at any moment it can serve for orientation, and can be 

 combined with similar maps of other departments to form a 

 harmonious and comprehensive idea of the world. 



This desire is warranted especially in the natural sciences, the 

 enormous development of which has influenced so powerfully the 

 civilisation of the present century. 



Mankind has two potent needs, to the satisfying of which it is 

 the purpose of science to contribute : a practical need, which is 

 manifested in a search after a fitting and agreeable adaptation of 

 the external conditions of life — the great development of modern 

 technique and medicine bears witness to the efBciency of science 

 in this respect ; and a theoretical need, which increases with civilisa- 

 tion and is manifested in a craving for causality or, in other words, 

 a search after a harmonious idea of life and the world. Both needs 

 are powerful, although they differ in intensity in accordance with 

 individuality. Mankind has the right to demand of natural science 

 that it shall never lose sight of its purpose and shall not mistake 

 its attitude toward the other aspects of human life, a danger that, 

 with the enormous extension of specialisation, is now growing 

 imminent. 



One-sided specialisation is continually falling into this error. It 

 leads far into barren fields, gradually ceases to recognise neigh- 

 bouring territory, and at last becomes incapable of co-labouring in 

 the general tasks of science. It scarcely needs mention that it 

 would be a mistake to lay aside specialisation altogether. Broad- 

 minded specialisation is one of the chief factors in the advance of 

 knowledge ; without it, no general knowledge can be acquired. 

 But a difference exists between special researches carried out for 



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