SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, MAY 22, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



As we look back at the literature of mod- 

 ern physiology, — a retrospect suggested by 

 the recent appearance of an index to Pfliiger's 

 Archiv fur pJiysiologie, — two facts especially 

 impress us : first, that the bulk of the researches 

 comes from Germany ; secondly, that modern 

 experimental science is scarce over forty years 

 old, but has developed iu extraordinary cre- 

 scendo. There is, perhaps, no other science 

 so pre-eminently German, and to which other 

 nations have contributed relatively so little. 

 In German}^ the first physiological laboratories 

 were founded, and these have become impor- 

 tant ' institutes,' which are the patterns other 

 countries are now slowly imitating. In Ger- 

 many the science first became strictly experi- 

 mental, and its modern methods and aims were 

 wrought out. The German universities have 

 been the training-places of the majority of 

 professional physiologists the world over, and 

 these men have been the apostles of German 

 influence. 



Our indebtedness to modern physiology can 

 hardly be over-estimated ; for its acquisitions 

 represent not only an invaluable intellectual 

 evolution, but also knowledge of immeasurable 

 utility in manifold practical aspects. It has 

 changed medicine from a crude empirical art 

 to an intelligent application of science, and 

 has done more than any other cause to raise 

 the mental status of the medical profession 

 by inculcating the rational foundation of the 

 practice of medicine. The chief initiatory 

 impulse to modern physiology was given by 

 the greatest of German biologists, Johannes 

 Miiller, — a man remarkable alike for his own 

 intellectual achievements, and for the stimulus 

 he imparted to others. He was one of the 



No. 120, — 1885. 



chief founders of the sciences of morphology, 

 physiology, and comparative anatomy. His 

 influence in physiology has been perpetuated 

 by his distinguished pupils, notably the veter- 

 ans, Ludwig, Helmholz, Briicke, and Du^Bois 

 Reymond, who are living to see two generations 

 of followers. Thus the young physiologist of 

 to-day might be called the great-grand-pupil 

 of Johannes Miiller. 



The literature of physiology has grown with 

 constantly expanding rapidity. At first the 

 memoirs were scattered in numerous scientific 

 and medical publications, but soon two peri- 

 odicals acquired the lead as media for the 

 announcement of physiological discoveries. 

 Miiller' s own ArcJiiv expressly included physi- 

 ology in its scope, as did also the ZeitscJirift 

 fur rationelle medicin, a journal of high scien- 

 tific rank. It was long before there was any 

 periodical exclusively devoted to physiology, 

 Pfliiger's Archiv not being founded until 1868. 

 At first Pfliiger's volumes were annual, but at 

 present he issues nearly three volumes a }~ear. 

 Since then two other first-class physiological 

 journals have been started in Germany. 

 Hoppe-Seyler edits a new and successful 

 ZeitscJirift fur physiologische cliemie; and the 

 continuation of Miiller' s Archiv has been 

 divided, the physiological part now forming a 

 separate annual volume. The annual report 

 on the progress of physiolog} T , giving abstracts 

 only, alone makes a buhYy volume, which 

 shows, moreover, that nearly all the papers are 

 in German. While the extraordinaiy develop- 

 ment of physiology in Germairy has been going 

 on, what have other countries contributed? 

 Very little. There are only two other physio- 

 logical journals of any note, — one decidedly 

 second-rate, in France ; and another the out- 

 come of the combined efforts of England and 

 America, which, though excellent scientifically, 

 is uncertain as to its viability. In short, the 



