JaxM AUY G, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



25 



which do appear will be of the same gen- 

 eral character and that we might look for 

 them in the human nervous system where 

 we find them in that of the rat. When it 

 is possible to see how the anatomy of the 

 nervous system may be altered during the 

 post-natal growth period, we shall be pre- 

 pared to take up the problem of how it 

 may be improved during embryonic and 

 foetal life, and how the actual number of 

 potential neurones is determined, and their 

 relative distribution controlled, and this 

 should lead ultimately to the attempt to 

 breed animals with improved nervous sys- 

 tems in which we shall know the nature of 

 the improvement in considerable detail. 



It may be urged that putting the prob- 

 lems in this way indicates a greater interest 

 in the application to physiology of the 

 anatomical results than in the results them- 

 selves. But I take it that the interest of a 

 machinist in building a machine is to make 

 the parts for one that will go, and that no 

 less honor is due him for his painstaking 

 care in determining the construction of the 

 different parts and their right relations, 

 because at the end of the operation he has 

 devised something capable of doing work. 

 Similarly, it is possible that a man's in- 

 terest from day to day shall be absorbed 

 in the technique of anatomical science, and 

 yet it is nevertheless distinctly advantage- 

 ous, if his anatomical observations bear on 

 the performances of the living animal, and 

 a final result is obtained which is the syn- 

 thesis of research in two associated fields. 



In drawing up the preceding outline, no 

 one is more aware than the writer of the 

 fact that problems connected with the nerv- 

 ous system have alone been considered. 

 Without doubt those more interested in the 

 other systems of the human body could 

 duplicate for these the problems which 

 have been suggested in connection with the 

 nervous system, so that the account given 

 above may be taken simply as an illustra- 



tion of the sort of thing that seems worth 

 doing. In presenting these illustrations it 

 has been my purpose to indicate a stand- 

 point from which the anatomical problems 

 can be profitably regarded, and to draw 

 attention to the use of quantitative methods 

 in the study of anatomy, and especially as 

 applied to the body during the period of 

 active growth. 



Yet perhaps the largest of our problems 

 and certainly one which appeals to all of 

 us, is the ways and means for the solid ad- 

 vancement of our science. Alongside of 

 the question of how we shall hand down 

 to successive generations of students the 

 facts already established, lies the still more 

 fundamental problem of the best method 

 of building up the body of anatomical 

 knowledge. 



It is not my purpose to advocate as a 

 means to this end the sharp separation of 

 teaching from investigation. It is a rare 

 man who can stand the strain of such a 

 division, whether he chooses one or the 

 other, and there is, moreover, much to be 

 said for such an arrangement as will bring 

 the average student into a laboratory where 

 he can himself see how research Avork is 

 conducted. Yet it would be possible to 

 name institutions in which the relative 

 amount of time required for teaching as 

 compared with that left free for investiga- 

 tion might with advantage be readjusted, 

 and almost all of our educational institu- 

 tions at the same time admittedly lack the 

 funds, and not often the educational pur- 

 pose, which would justify them in attempt- 

 ing to meet the various difficulties connect- 

 ed with anatomical investigations on a large 

 scale. Yet no one questions the impor- 

 tance of striving for a more rapid advance. 

 A response to this feeling finds its expres- 

 sion in the several research funds which 

 are now available in this country and 

 abroad for the endowment of investiga- 

 tion, and in the plan presented to the In- 



