SCIENCE. 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 



Verite sans penr. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: THE SCIENCE COMPANY. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The award by the Royal society of London 

 of the highest honor in its gift, the Copley 

 medal, to Professor Carl Ludwig of Leipzig, 

 has been the cause of much rejoicing among 

 English physiologists. Since John Hunter re- 

 ceived the medal nearly one hundred years ago 

 (1787), no physiologist has so merited it by 

 fruitful, lifelong devotion to the advancement 

 of knowledge. Ludwig's first research was 

 published in 1844 ; and still every year impor- 

 tant investigations, inspired, directed, and of- 

 ten personally executed by him, are published 

 from his laboratory. His work extends over 

 nearly every branch of physiology, but we 

 can here refer only to one or two of his more 

 epoch-marking works. In 1850, by the dis- 

 co very of secretory nerves, he added a new 

 territory to the domain of experimental physi- 

 ology. That wonderful series of researches on 

 the circulatory mechanism, which commenced 

 in 1847 with a paper on the influence of the 

 respiratory movements on the blood-flow in the 

 aorta, has continued to this day, almost every 

 year adding something from the master's hand. 

 The introduction of the graphic method into 

 physiological experimentation we also owe to 

 Ludwig ; and he who would, ask what the value 

 of this has been, may be referred to almost the 

 whole of modern experimental plrysiology for 



his answer. 



Nearly all of the present generation of Brit- 

 ish physiologists have been students in the 

 Leipzig laboratory. While there, they could 

 not fail to acquire a warm personal affection 

 for its director. Simple, kindly, possessed of 

 a genial humor which never wounds, enthusias- 



No. 100. — 188".. 



tic in his work, and ever read}* with aid and 

 counsel, Ludwig must be beloved by those who 

 work under him : hence, to their pleasure in 

 a worth}' bestowal of the Copley medal, Eng- 

 lish physiologists have the further joy of seeing 

 a beloved master publicly honored. In both 

 these respects they will have man}* warm sym- 

 pathizers in the United States. For years the 

 Leipzig laboratory has been the headquarters 

 abroad of young American as well as English 

 physiologists ; and at present Ludwig is rep- 

 resented by pupils on the physiological staff 

 of the Harvard medical school, of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, of the Johns Hopkins 

 university, of the University of Michigan, and 

 probably of other American institutions. In 

 fact, so far as physiology is now pursued and 

 taught in this country as a definite independ- 

 ent science, and not as a mere bod}* of more 

 or less dubious dogmas which custom makes 

 it necessary to include in the medical student's 

 curriculum, it is, for the most part, pursued 

 and taught by or under the direction of those 

 who have been Ludwig's pupils. In their 

 name we congratulate the master, and express 

 the hope that he may yet be spared for many 

 years to carry on his work. 



We have had occasion twice during the past 

 year to remonstrate against the methods em- 

 ployed by certain book-dealers in bringing out 

 quasi- scientific books. In June, mention was 

 made of several volumes that appeared without 

 date. In November it was the question of 

 more sincere discrimination on the part of pub- 

 lishers in regard to the quality of the material 

 that they recommend to the purchasing public. 

 Now, the little book on meteorology mentioned 

 in our notes provokes protest against the prac- 

 tice of borrowing illustrations and extracts 

 without acknowledgment of their sources. 



