ADDRESS. 
15 
been corrected in the treatment of disease, and new factors intro¬ 
duced, making advances in the right direction. 
Before the fmictions of the portio dura of the 7th pair were 
known, surgeons used to cut this nerve for the relief of neuralgia. 
A knowledge of the circulation of the blood and cardiac move 
ments speak their own importance full well, and what good has 
resulted therefrom in the cure of disease, and in the amelioration of 
suffering! The classical experiments upon respiration, the rela¬ 
tions of animal life to the surrounding atmosphere, and the 
mutual dependence of plant and animal, must be credited to the 
physiological laboratory. Whatever of good has come or may 
come from the transfusion of blood, should be ceded to Boyle 
and Lewis, who, more than two centuries ago, performed the 
experiment upon the lower animals, to determine the propriety 
of attempting the same in man. Hunter’s ligature of arteries for 
aneurism, and the periosteal reproduction of bone, are but a few of 
the examples of great principles developed from experimental 
physiology. Hot only does experimentation in this respect estab¬ 
lish the groundwork upon which the details may be elaborated, 
but it suggests another mode of inquiry—the therapeutical effect of 
drugs and medicines. Ether, chloroform, chloral and many more 
most valuable remedies have entered the list, after first having 
their effects tried upon the inferior animals. The problem then 
seems demonstrated that medical science, as a whole, must look to 
continued and carefully conducted experimentation for its material 
advance, and the departments wdiich require to be built up most 
are animal and vegetable chemistry, physiological therapeutics, 
with experimental physiology generally. 
We require a knowledge of how remedies act in the body, both 
in disease and in health, for the means of diagnosis of disease 
are far in advance of the treatment of the same. The fact of the 
treatment of disease in the lower animals seems to suggest the 
propriety of experimentation in the directions just indicated, and 
the truth is spoken when the statement is made, that some of the 
most important and brilliant discoveries and researches have been 
in Veterinary institutions. The schools of Lyons and Alfert 
have already done much to advance medical science. Such names 
