REVIEW. 
165 
mutually exert their action and reaction? What fits the carnivorous 
stomach for its food, the herbivorous for its work ? How and where is 
the relation between them and the dental apparatus? Outside, or be¬ 
yond the most simple chemical results, we are at once arrested by a 
hundred questions, as yet unsolved, and as far, apparently, from solu¬ 
tion as they were when first suggesting themselves to the human mind. 
Partial answers may be given, i. e., we may advance the problem one 
degree further from the most easily observed phenomena ; but a great 
gulph comes between us and the final answer; and divide as we will 
the narrow ground that lies between our starting point and the margin 
of that gulph ; laboriously measure as we like, and accurately name 
every step of the process from the first rough fact to that brink, reached 
in the ages long since passed without such fine calculations, we do not 
by such means fill up the gulph itself, nor have we yet discovered even 
a plank wherewith to launch out upon the dark sea that comes between 
the material and the immaterial, the seen and the unseen.” 
Also the Function of Respiration, and the 
Nervous System. 
“ We imagine, and our students are often taught to imagine, that 
the physiology of respiration is exhausted when they have learned how 
many cubic inches of air constitute the vital capacity of the thorax, how 
many are exchanged in ordinary breathing, how much per cent, of 
oxygen is taken in, how much per cent, of carbonic acid is throw'n out; 
what muscles expand the thorax, how the air is squeezed away from the 
pulmonary vesicles, what nerves act upon the muscles, and so forth. 
Again, the student often feels satisfied when he can find a parallel be¬ 
tween the galvanic battery and the nervous system, and can apply some 
such mysterious word as ‘ polarity’ to both. In short, there is a species 
of contentment, the verv reverse of that which will lead to further in- 
investigation, in knowing accurately some ponderable and measurable 
facts; a strong temptation to suppose that these constitute the whole 
instead of only a portion of that which has to be known; and further, 
a great disposition to think that the w'hole is already known. 
“ Now this mode of viewing life and vital phenomena is, I think, the 
very reverse of an * advance.’ Organic chemistry and animal mechanics 
are carried forward, but the science of physiology remains behind, and 
unless there is an advance in physiology and pathology there can be no 
real advance of practical medicine.” 
Our author next advances a position, in which, were it not 
next akin to high treason, we should be inclined to say that 
we concur with him. Of this we feel assured, that when the 
time of the student is limited, too much of it is set apart for 
The Study of Anatomy, 
to the exclusion of other divisions of science. Only this will 
we add—Let the time deemed necessary be ardently and 
honestly devoted to its pursuit. 
“ It has always appeared to me that a vast amount of valuable time 
