LUDWIG AND MODERN PHYSIOLOGY. 375 



seemed what he was, and who had no other aim than the advance 

 ment of Lis science, and in that advancement saw no other end than 

 the increase of human happiness. These qualities displayed themselves 

 in Ludwig's daily active life in the laboratory, where he was to be found 

 whenever work of special interest was going on; but still more when, 

 as happened on Sunday mornings, he was " at home " in the library of 

 the institute — the corner room in which he ordinarily worked. Many 

 of his u scholars" have put on record their recollections of these occa- 

 sions, the cordiality of the master's welcome, the wide range and varied 

 interest of his conversation, and the ready appreciation with which he 

 seized on anything that was new or original in the suggestions of those 

 present. Few men live as he did, " im Gaznen, Guten, Schonen," and 

 of those still fewer know how to communicate out of their fullness to 

 others. 



III. THE OLD AND THE NEW VITALISM. 



Since the middle of the century the progress of physiology has been 

 continuous. Each year has had its record, and has brought with it 

 new accessions to knowledge. In one respect the rate of progress was 

 more rapid at first than it is now, for in an unexplored country discov- 

 ery is relatively easy. In another sense it was slower, for there are 

 now scores of investigators for every one that could be counted in 

 1840 or 1850. Until recently there has been throughout this period no 

 tendency to revert to the old methods — no new departure — no diver- 

 gence from the principles which Ludwig did so much to enforce and 

 exemplify. 



The wonderful revolution which the appearance of the Origin of Spe- 

 cies produced in the other branch of biology promoted the progress of 

 physiology, by the new interest which it gave to the study, not only of 

 structure and development, but of all other vital phenomena. It did 

 not, however, in any sensible degree affect our method or alter the 

 direction in which physiologists had been working for two decades. Its 

 most obvious effect was to sever the two subjects from each other. To 

 the Darwinian epoch comparative anatomy and physiology were united, 

 but as the new ontology grew it became evident that each had its own 

 problems and its own methods of dealing with them. 



The old vitalism of the first half of the century is easily explained. 

 It was generally believed that, on the whole, things went on in the liv- 

 ing body as they do outside of it, but when a difficulty arose in so 

 explaining them the physiologist was ready at once to call in the aid of 

 a "vital force." It must not, however, be forgotten that, as I have 

 already indicated, there were great teachers (such, for example, as 

 Sharpey and Allen Thomson in England, Magendie in France, Weber 

 in Germany) who discarded all vitalistic theories, and concerned them- 

 selves only with the study of the time and place relations of phe- 

 nomena; men who were before their time in insight, and were only 

 hindered in their application of chemical and physical principles to 



