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INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
what may be called a dead aspect ; for, in itself, anatomy 
presents the parts as motionless and not alive. Here the 
science of physiology steps in, and explores the offices, uses, 
and functions of the various organs. Physiology in its turn 
is general and special — though general physiology, a most 
important branch of the science, is yet in comparative 
infancy. Physiology is the union of all the known and 
recognisable living actions of the organism to the revelations 
of structure made by anatomy. Moreover, it is the union of 
all our observations of the fluids of the body to all our 
knowledge of the solids. It embraces, also, the wondrous 
sympathy which exists between different organs and sets 
of organs ; in short, it is the entire history of organic 
life. For example : anatomy opens the chest, and shows you 
the lungs, but only as motionless, lifeless structures, made up 
of air-tubes and cells, arteries, veins, nerves, &c., lying in 
juxtaposition, and which with the heart, fill the cavity. 
Physiology shows you the living breathing animal, the 
nostrils expanding, the chest dilating and subsiding, and 
the body, generally, with the circulating fluids, all influenced 
by these motive forces. By physiology you have, so to 
speak, to put this living force of breathing into the struc- 
ture which anatomy has developed; to learn the details 
of the function by observing how the mechanism suits 
the function ; and in short to make the lungs scientifically 
alive by a knowledge of their movements and general uses. 
Physiology is, therefore, the life of anatomy, and raises it 
upon its feet. 
The realm of organic sympathies, also belonging to phy- 
siology, is a matter of still more subtle inference reposing 
upon deeper and wider information. Thus, while our spe- 
cial senses are the chief observers in anatomy, a more 
active power of observation, a more penetrating thought, and, 
if I may use the expression, a kind of scientific imagination, 
are brought into play in eliciting the truths of physiology. 
The product is living, because the subjects of which it treats, 
and also the faculties of our own minds which elicit it, are alive. 
So much for general science, but we must not be too 
general, for the business of the veterinary surgeon is with the 
domesticated animals and their diseases. The principles of 
life are the same whether applied to man, horse, elephant, or 
zoophyte. Every organic being is full of Divine wisdom. 
Life and organism are exactly suited to each other, and thus it 
is that every living creature is fitted to its sphere of existence 
w ith unerringand infinite skill. The consideration of thisgrand 
truth is indeed the most general branch of physiology. But 
