REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF PHYSIOLOGY 
YEAR 1899 
Since the opening of the Department at the occasion of Lord Lister's visit much has 
needed to be done to place the Laboratory in a position for full employment of its resources. 
Various fittings, incomplete at that time, have been now^ arranged and fixed. Lectures and 
practical classes now enjoy an accommodation and facilities they never before possessed vifith us. 
It has been gratifying to notice the increased ardour of the student, no doubt traceable to this 
cause. In addition to the teaching w^ork and the considerable labour involved in adequately 
installing the rooms, some work of an investigational character has been proceeded with. There 
are, at present, however, no funds available to meet the expenses of such work. This is a matter 
of regret. The worker who is competent to pursue original investigation does not seem to expect 
to have to devote his own purse, as well as his own toil and time, to his subject. His view appears 
to me a fair one, and in no other country than our own is such a demand made from him. If he 
is capable and willing the expenses of his work, to the extent of providing him with the material 
and apparatus for its execution, are liberally and gladly provided by his University or the State, 
these, in most cases, being the same thing. We have, in the Physiological Depar tmen t, had a 
number of offers from workers desirous of pursuing investigational study ; but on hearing that the 
expenses must be met by themselves, even to the extent of supplying their own material and 
re-agents, the conditions have seemed too unfavourable for acceptance. 
THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTOLOGY 
The Department of Histology was more especialy under the charge of Mr. E. E. 
Laslett, formerly Holt Fellow in Physiology. Mr. Laslett during his tenure of the Assistant 
Lectureship, besides superintending the class work, prosecuted research. He published in the 
'Lancet,' of August, 1898, a 'Note on a Modification of the Weigert-Pal Process of Staining 
applicable to Paraffin Sections.' Also he investigated, in conjunction with Dr. W. B. Warrington, 
the pathological anatomy of a spinal case of much neurological interest. The results obtained 
in the work have appeared in ' Brain,' the Journal of the Neurological Society, under title ' Note 
on the Ascending Tracts in the Human Spinal Cord,' Winter No., 1899. 
THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY 
The Department of Chemical Physiology has been chiefly concerned with the 
instruction of students. Original investigation in this branch is particularly expensive, especially 
as in England — in contradistinction to continental countries— absolute alcohol cannot be obtained 
free of Excise duty for laboratory purposes. 
