INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
664 
Next to a knowledge of anatomy, I place chemistry; for 
important as the one may be to a solution of the laws of 
physiology and pathology, the other is no less so. “There can 
be no questioning the fact of chemistry having done much for 
physiology, since with every change in the construction of an 
organ or a tissue, a corresponding change in function must 
ensue,” says a distinguished writer of the present day. In a 
former part of this address I have given an example of the 
benefits which the materia medica section of Chemistry bestows 
in the treatment of the disease called tympanitis; this, how¬ 
ever, is but a feeble specimen of the value of the science. 
There is a division of it, organic chemistry, which contains 
such a flood-tide of knowledge, that if set at liberty with all 
its power, it would sweep away, and swamp and drown very 
many of the generally-received physiological explanations. 
And why? because it may be affirmed that they are simply 
hypotheses, not true theories. This portion of the science 
may be said to be as yet in its swaddling clothes. It is, 
however, fortunate that the nursing of the infant giant 
should, within these walls, be entrusted to the able and 
experienced keeping of one so capable of rearing it to matu¬ 
rity, and who, without doubt, will in due time bring forth 
its full powers to the admiration and benefit of us all. You, 
gentlemen, have not a more talented teacher, or a more sin¬ 
cere well-wisher, nor one who labours harder for your success, 
or who feels more keenly your rejection, when tested by the 
court of examiners, than my kind, and, I trust, duly estimated 
friend. Professor Morton. 
Those of you who had the advantage of being present last 
year at the delivery of Prof. Morton’s eloquent inaugural 
address, cannot have forgotten the clear and convincing 
arguments he adduced in support of organic chemistry. 
Speaking of the action of the bile and pancreatic fluid in the 
digestive process, he observed that “to the pancreatic juice 
has lately been given emulsive properties; its use, therefore, 
is to combine with and render soluble the fatty matters of the 
food. This view, however, (he adds,) is not concurred in 
by Dr. Bence Jones and others, who consider the pancreas as 
supplementary to the salivaiy glands, as taught by Lassaigne; 
and its secretion for the purpose of effecting the full change 
of the starchy matters into sugar, which does not take place 
in the mouth. The uses of the biliary secretion are perhaps 
not more satisfactorily defined than those of the pancreatic. 
Some physiologists consider it to be the principal solvent of 
the albuminous parts of the food. Bernard has ascertained 
that sugar is taken up and carried directly to the liver; and 
in the bile, by means of the ordinary tests, this principle has 
