632 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
different gases, either singly or combined. By so doing, 
a new light has been thrown on many of the operations 
of nature, and valuable pathological facts have been de- 
duced with which we ought now to be content. Unless, how- 
ever, it should be inferred, from the observations I have made, 
that I am opposed to any further experimental inquiries, it 
may be as well for me distinctly to state that no such senti- 
ments pervade my mind. But I ask for poor dumb brutes, 
over which be it remembered man holds but a delegated 
power, the exercise of feelings of compassion for their suffer- 
ings akin to those bestowed on fellow-man ; and I desire to_ 
raise my voice against the repetition of needless and cruel 
experiments. 
I come next to chemistry, as a science to be used for the 
unfolding of physiological phenomena. This is, indeed, a 
Herculean power, and, as employed in this institution, of 
the greatest import to you, for its laws are here investigated 
and explained with a view to the accomplishment of this 
end. By observing that an animal body is composed of a 
few simple elements, of which it is the sole property of this 
science to demonstrate the inherent properties of, we at once 
set forth the value of chemistry as applied to physiology. 
Of late, it has been the custom to speak of organic chemistry 
as a special branch of this science, from its application to the 
purpose we allude to. Doubtless its value will appear yet 
more and more ; but some, we fear, in their search after know- 
ledge, are too apt to lose sight of the operations of the vital 
force as a controller of chemical action. “It is a great 
thing,” writes a distinguished member of the medical pro- 
fession, “ to be able, as we now are, by the aid of organic 
chemistry, to trace each act of the metamorphoses which the 
materials of the body are continually passing through ; to be 
able precisely to define what becomes of the saccharine and 
fatty principles of the food ; to be able to follow the albu- 
minoid matters, the phosphorus, the earthy, alkaline, and 
metallic salts ; to have a clear perception to what particular 
class of organs they go ; how they are used up in the pro- 
duction of different kinds of force, or in the formation of 
various secretions, and finally, to find in the very dtbris and 
excreta of the body the sure and certain measure of the vital 
action itself.”* 
Thus you perceive, that to be physiologists you must first 
be chemists, and without you are both these, you can never 
become pathologists in the strict and proper meaning of the 
term. Time, however, warns me to proceed, and I shall 
* ‘Hunterian Oration, 5 by It. D. Grainger, F.R.S., 1848. 
