636 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
of the greatest importance in surgery ; it assists in forming a 
correct diagnosis and gives confidence and precision to the 
operator. Repeated dissections are the only means of gaining 
this knowledge; books and lectures are merely guides; what 
you learn from them is only what other people know; it is 
not knowledge of } r our own, nor can you appropriate it to 
the same extent as that which you acquire for yourselves by 
hard work. 
Without a knowledge of anatomy how is it possible to 
understand physiology, a science I may now be permitted 
to direct your attention to ? 
Physiology is the science which treats of the condition, 
phenomena, and laws of the life of the animal body in a state 
of health. To study and understand this science it is neces¬ 
sary, as before stated, to be acquainted with the minute 
anatomy of the tissues and organs of which the animal body 
is composed, as well as with their chemical composition. 
Certain processes also must be considered as important to be 
understood, such, for instance, as digestion, absorption, secre¬ 
tion, and excretion, also the circulation of the blood; assimi¬ 
lation and nutrition, and other functions which l need not, for 
the purpose of illustration, enumerate. The mind should be 
so imbued with the principles of physiology that disease may 
at all times be considered in relation to the healthy standard. 
From these remarks you may observe that you cannot make 
much advance in your studies without seeing the dependence 
one division of science has upon the other. To witness the 
minute structures of which the different organs of the body 
are composed will require the aid of the microscope, which 
will not only reveal to inquiring minds the minutest particles, 
but also their arrangement. Without such aids as this and 
chemistry, I am at a loss to understand how physiology can 
be studied with any degree of advantage. To be sure, we can 
read books, pictorial or otherwise, and hear lectures, and by 
careful attention to them gain a great deal of information, 
but it is a different kind of knowledge to that which we 
get by investigating and seeing for ourselves. If we see 
and thoroughly examine anything, we are impressed with its 
form and peculiarities; not so, however, by simply hearing it 
described. To convince you of the truth of this assertion, just 
examine a section of bone or tooth (one of the simplest objects) 
by the aid of the microscope, when I feel assured you will 
agree with me that all the teaching and reading in the world 
could not so thoroughly impress you with the arrangements 
of a system of tubes called Haversian canals as a single glance 
through this beautiful instrument. Knowledge, of whatever 
