2 TRANSACTIONS LIVEEPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



" The proper study of mankind is man." His contem- 

 poraries thought that such lucid phrasing justified them in 

 deeming him " the incomparable poet," forgetful that 

 the aphorism expresses simply the prevailing idea of the 

 day, and that, as years pass, prevailing ideas change. 

 But Physiology has been and still is one aspect of Pope's 

 dictum. It exists to-day essentially as Human Physiology, 

 the study of the normal functions of the healthy human 

 organs. It is true that this study is, in many cases, 

 carried out on the tissues and organs of a few lower 

 animals, but the facts thus revealed are used rather to 

 throw light upon the functions of our own organs than 

 to elucidate the functions of the animals themselves. 

 We are, and shall always remain, to ourselves the most 

 important of all living things, nor can we wonder at this 

 when we remember, that the whole world and all that it 

 contains has its existence, so far as we are concerned, in 

 our own enigmatical sentient being. 



Physiology, the study of the functions of living things, 

 what they do, joined to a blind groping enquiry as to how 

 they do it, owes everything to Medicine. Its Laboratories 

 are adjuncts to Medical Schools, the subjects of investi- 

 gation in such laboratories are in the vast majority of 

 cases such as directly tend towards the advancement of 

 knowledge useful to Medicine. The debt my science owes 

 to Medicine cannot be overestimated but like most debts 

 it leaves the debtor with the chains of his bondage still 

 upon him. In this case the links of this chain become 

 visible when we realise the extent to which physiology 

 has been divorced from that great science of which it 

 really forms one entire aspect — I mean Biology. I rejoice 

 therefore that though in more exalted associations, 

 Physiology has by the shere weight of its metal, been 

 compelled to constitute itself a different section to Biology, 



