150 
HUNTERIAN ORATION. 
want of some guiding point to lead and direct him. The consulta¬ 
tion of many authors is not the modern tendency. 
The changes which the literature of the country had undergone 
had naturally an effect upon their profession; yet cyclopaedias 
and reviews had too much usurped the place of old folios, so 
that it might be said still, “ Men get at all their knowledge by 
reviews.” On the other hand, he trusted and believed that the 
impulse which the advancing tide of knowledge had received was 
felt by them; that many had become more studious and more scien¬ 
tific; and that pathology and surgery had, in the course of the last 
few years, undergone changes as wonderful and important as those 
effected by Hunter; not, indeed, by the labours of a single indivi¬ 
dual, but by a number of zealous votaries in a similar spirit of 
experimental research, and over a still more extended field. The 
great results which he anticipated in pathology and practice, both 
medical and surgical, were again to be derived, in part, from fur¬ 
ther researches into anatomical and physiological science, by more 
minute and accurate examination of animal and vegetable bodies; 
and by having especial regard to the general anatomy of tissues, 
which was at present carried on, by microscopic observation and 
inorganic chemistry, to a greater degree of refinement. It was in 
minute subjects that modern pathology was occupied, to explain 
the different and numerous functions of life. Digestion, respira¬ 
tion, secretion, excretion, &c., were all presented in new forms, 
and gave fresh charms to science. The discovery of albuminous 
substance in all vegetable life had removed much of the mystery 
of the animal, shewing that the conversion of vegetable substances 
into nitrogen is not required to be effected in the stomach. The 
process of digestion becomes, therefore, much more simple in 
theory; it is mere dilution and absorption, and provision is made 
for the removal of that subtle alkaloid poison from the body so as 
to preserve life. 
The Lecturer then referred to the knowledge which was pos¬ 
sessed of the power of absorption of gases by the blood, the che¬ 
mical changes which it underwent, and the removal of nitrogen 
from the body. He alluded also to the triumphs of modern 
chemistry, in resolving one organized substance into another, and 
which Hunter had regarded as impossible. It was a physiological 
question, how that could be effected by the living body, subject as 
it was to the action of gaseous particles upon its solid as well as 
upon its fluid material. Every action of the body effected some 
chemical change, and caused the disengagement of electricity :— 
these were facts which were familiar to every one. Practice, on 
the other hand, to be more effectual, must sometimes look to the 
prevention, and at others to the treatment, of disease by the use of 
