OPENING ADDEESS. 23 



Medicine? That this is one cause seems to be probable 

 when we look at the state of botanical science. Physiolo- 

 gists do not as a rule meddle with vegetable physiology, 

 and I remember when I had the honour of assisting my 

 teacher, Professor Burdon Sanderson, in his experiments 

 upon the excitability of the Dionsea plant, being asked 

 " why we were working at vegetables and what they had 

 to do with Human Physiology." 



The Botanist has to work out his own physiological 

 salvation in fear and trembling, but it is undoubtedly for 

 the good of that science, since the study of structure side 

 by side with function is the true method. As a result 

 botanical science has its vegetable Physiology, but where 

 is the Physiology of the Invertebrate ? 



Comparative Anatomy and Animal Physiology must 

 both suffer if they allow the separation between them to 

 become a divorce; they should be wedded, that, from their 

 union may spring as their first-born, a new department, 

 devoted to the systematic study of Comparative Physiology. 



What does the establishment of such a department 

 demand ? The needs are those which have to be met in 

 connection with all physiological work, but associated now 

 with such special zoological requirements as are necessi- 

 tated by the special direction of this inquiry. 



Kemembering that the function of the structures of the 

 lower forms of animal life, is the goal towards which all 

 work in this department must press, the question admits 

 of some such answer as this. There are three practical 

 methods for the study of the physical aspects of living 

 things. These are either chemical, mechanical or 

 microscopical. A comparative Physiological Laboratory 

 would need adequate equipment for chemical investigation, 

 for ascertaining such physical changes as movement, 

 electrical effects, heat effects and the like, and for exam- 



