RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE, AND THEIR BEARING 

 ON MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 1 



By Prof. R. Virchow. 



The honor of being invited to deliver the second Huxley lecture has 

 deeply moved ine. How beautiful are these days of remembrance 

 which have become a national custom of the English people ! How 

 touching is this act of gratitude when the celebration is held at the 

 very place wherein the genius of the man whom it commemorates was 

 first guided toward its scientific development ! We are filled not alone 

 with admiration for the hero, but at the same time with grateful recog- 

 nition of the institution which planted the seed of high achievement 

 in the soul of the youthful student. That you, gentlemen, should have 

 entrusted to a stranger the task of giving these feelings expression 

 seemed to me an act of such kindly sentiment, implying such perfect 

 confidence, that I at first hesitated to accept it. How am I to find in 

 a strange tongue words which shall perfectly express my feelings'? 

 How shall I, in the presence of a circle of men who are personally 

 unknown to me, but of whom many knew him who has passed away 

 and had seen him at work, always find the right expression for that 

 which I wish to say as well as a member of that circle itself could? I 

 dare not believe that I shall throughout succeed in this. But if, in 

 spite of all, I repress my scruples it is because I know how indulgently 

 my English colleagues will judge my often incomplete statements, and 

 how fully they are inclined to pardon deficiency in diction if they are 

 convinced of the good intentions of the lecturer. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S WORK. 



I may assume that such a task would not have been allotted to me 

 had not those who imposed it known how deeply the feeling of admira- 

 tion for Huxley is rooted within me, had they not seen how fully I 

 recognized the achievements of the dead master from his first epoch- 



2 The second Huxley lecture, delivered by Prof. R. Vircliow at the opening of the 

 winter session of Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, on October 3. Reprinted 

 from the London Times in Nature, No. 1510, Vol. 58, October 6, 1898. 



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