CHAKLKS SEDGWICK MINOT. 87 
In his preface to these lectures we find these words: "Had circuin- 
stances permitted, I should have de\oted myself entirely to the study 
of general problems hut necessity early lead me into teaching emhry- 
ology and in the acquisition of even my partial mastery of that intri- 
cate science, so much time was absorbed that I was forced to ^i\ c up 
the hope with which I started out. ..." 
The questions of structiuv as they appeared in the field of eiubry- 
ology were ceaselessly pressing into view. In regard to these he took 
the sane position that it would be wise to know exactly what the 
structural changes were before spending too much time in exi)laining 
how they came about. His "Human Embryology" — the result of 
ten years' labor (published in 1S92) — was a book on which he spent 
himself; a unique presentation of embryological results, much needed 
and admirably accomplished. 
His later "Laboratory Te.xt-Book of Embryology," based on the 
pig, represented an attempt to meet the needs of the laboratory 
instruction by mediating l)etween the student and the specimens — 
which in Minot's Ial)oratory at least were always to be had. It was 
in connection with the embryological studies that he observed and 
described those blood channels in the organs of vertebrates which he 
designated "sinusoids" (1900) — channels so difi'erent from capil- 
laries, while serving the same mechanical purpose. 
It may have impressed my hearers that emphasis has been placed 
on the fact that Minot was a student of structure, for it has been my 
purpose to bring out this point. Yet in following this line of work he 
did what the time and state of his science demanded. The facts he 
dealt with were necessary and fundamental to further progress. 
To-day our interests are more largely turned to the problems which 
may be studied in the light of chemistry, but it must not be forgotten 
that the present work is based on that which went l^efore. The 
marvelous acceleration which marks scientific progress sometimes 
leads us to judge past work by present activity, but we do a double 
WTong by such an act. Broadly speaking, the progress of science is 
represented by a series of steps and it would require a breed of scientists 
after the fashion of the faithful hound of Pluto, with at least three 
heads capable of simultaneous and independent activity, to enable the 
investigator to keep abreast of his own investigations. When a man 
takes the next step in his chosen field he has done his best, both for his 
subject and his fellows. 
