plied to the borough. The Huddersfield installation is not yet completed, but a portion of it is ready, and is now in actual operation. When complete it will consist of an oxygen plant and four bays of oil-gas retorts, capable collectively of producing 200,000 cubic feet of oxy-oil gas per day, together with the necessary condensers and holders. The oxygen plant has been already erected by Brin's Oxygen Company, and is their newest type of producer. It is built in two sections, which may be worked together or independently, and will make no less than 30,000 cubic feet of oxygen per day. This, the largest oxygen-producer ever constructed, is now in active operation. Of the oil gas plant one bay, consisting of fifteen cast iron retorts, is also working, and is capable of producing 50,000 cubic feet of oil gas per day. The lowest and hottest of the retorts are intended for "cracking" the residues from the upper retorts, but they may of course be fed with clean oil if required. The oxygen is introduced into the oil gas soon after the latter leaves the retorts and while still warm; the mixed gases then pass together through the condensers. The admission of the oxygen is automatically adjusted by means of a combination of meters, so that the proportion is constantly maintained at fifteen per cent. The oxy-oil gas is stored in special holders, and it is arranged to admit it into the coal gas just before the entry of the latter into the station meter, the quantity being regulated by a meter coupled to the station meter. The results so far attained are highly satisfactory. The admission of about six per cent. of oxy-oil gas is already found to increase the illuminating power of the corporation gas by the equivalent of five and a half candles, and this is probably much below the enrichment which will eventually be attained when the plant is complete, and when normal coal can again be employed at the cessation of the strike. The results attained by the Salisbury Square plant are considerably superior to this, and it is expected that the Huddersfield installation will eventually attain the same standard. Further, a marked increase in the stability of the gas is observed, for poor coal gas actually loses more illuminating power by storage than the same gas admixed with oxy-oil gas does. As regards cost, it is calculated from the experimental data furnished by the working portion of the Huddersfield installation, that the increased cost of production of the gas so enriched will not, at the highest estimate, exceed a third of a penny per thousand cubic feet. NOTES from the Marine Biological Station, Plymouth.-Last week, like its immediate predecessors, was characterised by stormy weather, which confined the dredging operations to inshore areas. The chief capture was a large haul of the Opisthobranch Oscanius (Pleurobranchus) membranaceus. The approach of winter is already indicated in the bottom fauna: colonies of the Compound Ascidian Fragarium elegans have been frequently taken in their state of "hibernation," and the colonies of the Polyzoan Bugula turbinata, which in the summer orms extensive forests on the stones in certain areas, have now almost completely died down. The Nemertine Amphiporus dissimulans has begun to breed, and the greater number of Micrura fasciolata are full-grown and sexually mature.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include two Sykes's Monkeys (Cercopithecus lbigularis, ??) from West Africa, presented by Mr. W. H. Barber; a Thick-furred Capuchin (Cebus vellerosus) from South America, presented by Mr. R. Kettle; three Tigers (Felis tigris, &9) from India, presented by H. R.H. Princess Beatrice; a Senegal Parrot (Poocephalus senegalus) from West Africa, presented by Mrs. Rylands; a Ruddy-headed Goose ernicla rubidiceps, 8) from the Falkland Islands, presented y Mr. Henry Phillips; a Tuatera Lizard (Sphenodon punctus) from New Zealand, presented by Mr. C. Stonham,

F.Z.S.; a Diamond Snake (Morelia spilotes) from New South Wales, presented by Mr. Arthur W. Darker ; a White-fronted Lemur (Lemur albifrons) from Madagascar, two Common Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris, albino) British, deposited; two Blue-winged Teal (Querquedula cyanoptera) from South America, a Japanese Teal (Querquedula formosa) from Northeast Asia, a Himalayan Monaul (Lophophorus impeyanus) from the Himalayas, a Turnstone (Strepsilas interpres), a Curlew (Numenius arquata) European, purchased; a Molucca Deer (Cervus moluccensis) born in the Gardens.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

THE SCINTILLATION OF STARS.-Though the question as to the cause of the scintillation of stars has not received the attention of many workers, yet it has had and still retains its adherents. In a recent number of the Revue Scientifique, M. Dufour gives the results of observations commenced in the year 1853. The observations were made with the naked eye. and were continued in all seasons and in all conditions of the weather, since the chief object of the investigation was scintillations of stars and the disturbances which occur in to find out whether there was any relation between the our atmosphere. The first results which were obtained led to the forming of the following laws. (1) That red stars scintillate less than white stars. (2) The intensity of the seintillation is nearly proportional to the product obtained by multiplying the astronomical refraction for the height at which the star appears, by the thickness of the stratum of air traversed by the luminous ray that one is considering, and (3) that the causes of some of the essential differences between the scintillations of different stars may perhaps be due to the stars themselves, Experiments for studying the question as to whether there was any difference between the scintillation on mountains and upon the plain, showed that on the mountains the scintillation was most feeble. An important meteorological conclusion, which, as M. Dufour says, is contrary to general opinion, and which he de duces from his numerous observations, is that a feeble scintillation generally announces the approach of bad weather. He gives many instances in support of his view, among which occur the observations at Col du Géant on July 12, 1788, when the brightest stars in Lyra, Cygnus, and the Eagle at the same altitude showed practically no signs of scintillating, while the next day there broke out over France the most violent storm that the annals of meteorology had ever registered. M. Dufour work after him, and who was led to the same three laws above compares his work with that of M. Montigny, who commenced mentioned. He suggests that as his observations were made in Switzerland, it would be interesting to find out if a feebleness of scintillation observed at sea also indicates bad weather.

86

A UNIVERSAL TELESCOPE STAND.-The construction of a good and simple universal mounting for small telescopes has been the aim of many instrument makers, and it is pleasing to note an advance in this direction made by the firm of K. Fritsch, formerly Prokesch, in Vienna. In their new so-called Universal statio" they have overcome many of the main difficulties. The chief point about this special kind of mounting is that the observer can either use the telescope as a theodolitethat is, with circles reading altitude and azimuth-or, by a slight adjustment, he may have the equatorial mounting where the circles read right ascension and declination. This end is gained by hinging what would be the polar axis on to a pivot at the side of the stand, thus allowing the axis to be moved from the horizontal to the vertical or any intermediate position. A strong metallic arc fixed on the top giving it a slight adjustment. of the stand supplies a means of clamping this axis, and With the axis vertical, we have then practially a theodolite mounting; with the axis out of the vertical, a parallactic mounting. It is needless to say that this mounting is only for small telescopes, and indeed its application to large ones is not needed. A detailed account of the mounting, with figures, will be found in No. 208 of Prometheus.

POPULAR ASTRONOMY.-Some time ago we inserted a note in this column to the effect that the editors of Astronomy and Astro-Physics, if they received sufficient support, would publish a monthly journal-Popular Astronomy-written especially for

the rapidly increasing number of amateurs. We are glad to say that we have recently received the first (September) number, and, as far as one can judge, the journal has a successful future before it. The present number contains the first chapters of some series of articles on various subjects. To give some idea of the subject-matter and their writers, we may mention that "The Spectroscope, and some of its applications," is dealt with by Keeler; "Concerted Observation of the Aurora," by Veeder; Shooting Stars: How to observe them, and what they teach us," by Denning; "Nebula and Comet-seeking," by Lewis Swift; "The Moon," by W. W. Payne, &c.; while future numbers will contain a series of articles by Barnard, on "Celestial Photography"; one by Elgar, on "The Moon"; another by Hale, on "The Sun," and many others. The treatment of the subjects is all that could be desired for those not acquainted with technicalities, and the illustrations, which include two excellent ones of the moon, are of the same style as those familiar to readers of Astronomy and Astro-Physics. The various tables, notes, &c., which complete this journal of forty-eight pages, form a useful and important addition.

THE AUGUST METEORS.-The prevalence of fine weather during the month of August afforded many observers excellent opportunities of observing the Perseids, and it is not surprising to hear that so many observations were made. Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 3192) gives some of the results, showing that at Warendorf, August 8-11, 410 paths were recorded, at Eversunital 72, Brilon 184, Arnsberg 114, Altona Hamburg more than 400, and so on. Prof. Denza, in the current number of L'Astronomie (No. 10, October), gives a list of some of the observations made in Italy. He refers to the shower as among "les plus éclantantes remarquées jusqu'à présent," and suggests that for the next few years it should receive special attention. The radiant point he locates as a = 44°, 8 = = + 55°, the number of meteors attaining their maximum on the night of the 10th to 11th. Mr. Denning has also a few words to say (the Observatory for October) with regard to this shower, commencing first with the inaccuracy shown in observing the Lyrids of April, and pointing out "the same extraordinary differences" manifested in these Perseid observations. The accurate places, as he believes. were obtained by Mr. Booth on August 9, 43° and + 57°, and by Mr. Evershed on August 10, 44° + 57°. On August 16 he himself deduced the radiant as 52° and + 57°, a value agreeing approximately with Kleiher's theoretical position for that date, namely 54° 59°.

ASTRONOMY OF THE FELLAHIN OF PALESTINE. —An interesting paper by Mr. P. J. Baldensperger, on the beliefs of the Fellahin of Palestine, is found in the] October report of the Palestine Exploration Fund. It appears that the Fellahin know the Pleiades by the name of Thureiyah. Besides this, many of the conspicuous stars and constellations have received names. The following are examples, though the list can be considerably

extended :

ing air, from being driven by the wind, and the whole drifts along with the superficial layer of water. The results obtained seem to point to the absence of any current northward along the coast of the bay. From all points of the line at which floats were discharged west of France they showed a tendency to drift rapidly south-eastward towards the south-eastern angle of the bay. The observations will be continued, and the result will be of value in furnishing additional information to sailors of the landward drift that has so often proved fatal to vessels on the north coast of Spain.

THE Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia has adopted a resolution approving of Sir Thomas McIlwraith's proposal to adopt an hour-zone system of time reckoning for Australia and New Zealand, with the 150th meridian (ten hours from Greenwich) as a unit, and urging the other branches of the society to take the matter up. The meridian of 150° E. runs through Cape Howe in the south-east of Australia and through the south-east of New Guinea, and its time would hold for the capitals of the three eastern colonies and Tasmania. The next hour interval westward (135° E.) would include the whole of South Australia, and the third (120° E.) would hold good for Western Australia. Eastward the time of the 165th meridian would apply to the south island of New Zealand, and that of the 180th meridian (twelve hours from Greenwich) to the north island and to Fiji.

Globus announces that an exploring and surveying expedition, to which five Germans are attached, has been organised in Brazil to study the less known parts of the Amazon basin and collect information as to ethnography and natural history. The expedition was intended to leave Santos in August, and cross the plateau of Matto-Grosso towards the upper waters of the Amazon, where surveys and scientific collections will be made.

THE last number of the Mouvement Geographique gives a sketch-map of Lake Leopold II., which lies south of the Congo. It has been resurveyed, in April 1892, by Mr. Mohun, the United States Consul to the Congo State, who was accompanied by M. De Meuse. The lake extends from 1°5' S. to 2°45' S., and its outflow drains into the Congo from the southern end. The lake receives no important streams, but is fed by drainage from extensive marshes which stretch away from its north-western end. The water is shallow, but rises 15 metres in the rainy season, inundating a large area of country. The deeply-indented bays serve as harbours for the canoes of the warlike slave-hunting races who inhabit the surrounding country, their villages being hidden deep in the forests at some distance from the shores of the lake.

THE new session of the Royal Geographical Society will be opened by an address on "Geographical Desiderata " by the new President, Mr. Clements R. Markham, F. R. S., on November 13. At the second meeting a paper on the Antarctic regions is expected from Dr. John Murray, of the Challenger, which will be followed by a discussion. Other papers which are being arranged for will be announced later. Mr. Mackinder will give the second course of his educational lectures on the relations of geography to history after Christmas, and a course of educational lectures on the principles of commercial geography is now being given, under the auspices of the Society, by Dr. H. R. Mill, in the London Institution.

THE HARVEIAN ORATION.

is now 237 years since the illustrious Fellow of this College whose name we are met to commemorate, provided, when two years before his death he conveyed his estate at Burmarsh to the College, that :

"There shall be once every year a general feast for all the Fellows; and on the day when such feast shall be kept, some one person of the said College shall be from time to time appointed by the President and two Eldest Censors and two Eldest Elects for the time being of the said College (so that the person so to be appointed be not in that behalf appointed two years together), who shall make an Oration publicly, in the said College, wherein shall be a commemoration of all the benefactors of the said College by name, and what in particular they have done for the benefit of the said College, with an exhortation to others to imitate those benefactors, and to contribute their en1 Delivered by Dr. P. H. Pye-Smith, F. R.S., at the Royal College o Physicians, on Wednesday, October 18th.

deavours for the advancement of the Society, according to the example of those benefactors; and with an exhortation to the Fellows and members of the said College to search and study out the Secrets of Nature by way of experiment; and also for the honour of the profession to continue in mutual love and affection among themselves, without which neither the dignity of the College can be preserved, nor yet particular men receive that benefit by their admission into the College which they might expect; ever remembering that concordia res parve crescunt, discordia magnæ dilabuntur.""

I. Concerning the originality of that immortal discovery, which places Harvey in the limited class represented by Aristotle and Archimedes, Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin, it is sufficient to bear in mind the following considerations :

1st. If Harvey's doctrine of the circulation was not new, why was it opposed by men in the position of Riolanus and Hoffmann, and welcomed as a discovery by Bartolinus and Schlegel and Descartes? Surely his contemporaries were better judges of the novelty of his views than we are!

2nd. Admitting that Servetus and Columbus taught the doctrine of the lesser circulation, we need but a moment's thought to convince us that no complete knowledge of this part of the subject was possible until the existence of a systemic circulation was established; for the one is physically impossible without the other.

3rd. The title of Harvey's great work is not, as it is sometimes quoted, "The Circulation of the Blood," but "De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis." He first showed that the flesh, or parenchyma, of the heart is true muscle, that the heart is not a passive chamber receiving the blood, but a contractile organ expelling it. Until the motive power of the heart was understood there could be no true theory of the circulation.

The fact is, that when we know the true solution of a problem, it is easy to see or think we see it in any discussion which preceded the discovery; for there is only a limited number of answers to most questions, and therefore true as well as false solutions are almost sure to have been proposed.

In the writings of Columbus, Servetus, and Caesalpinus, phrases occur which sometimes seem as if the writers were going to state the truth that Harvey first asserted.

But it would be as reasonable to infer, from such passages, that the circulation of the blood was then known, as from the lines that Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Brutus :

"As dear to me as are the ruddy drops

That visit my sad heart.'

As Paley well said, he only discovers who proves. To hit upon a true conjecture here and there amid a crowd of untrue, and leave it again without appreciation of its importance, is the sign, not of intelligence, but of frivolity. We are told that of the seven wise men of Greece, one (I believe it was Thales) taught that the sun did not go round the earth, but the earth round the sun, and hence it has been said that Thales anticipated Copernicus-a flagrant example of the fallacy in question. A crowd of idle philosophers talking all day long about all things in heaven and earth, must sometimes have hit on a true opinion, if only by accident, but Thales, or whoever broached the heliocentric dogma, had no reason for his belief, and showed himself not more but less reasonable than his companions. The crude theories and gross absurdities of phrenology are not in the least justified, or even excused, by our present knowledge of cerebral localisation; nor do the baseless speculations of Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin entitle them to be regarded as the forerunners of Erasmus Darwin's illustrious grandson. Cuvier was perfectly right in his controversy with Geoffroy St. Hilaire; the weight of evidence was undoubtedly on his side. Up to 1859 impartial and competent men were bound to disbelieve in evolution; after that date, or at least so soon as the facts and arguments of Darwin and Wallace had been published, they were equally bound to believe in it. He discovers who proves, and by this test Harvey is the sole and absolute discoverer of the movements of the heart and of the blood.

Concerning the methods used by Harvey they were various, and his discovery, like most great advances in knowledge, was not achieved by one of the happy accidents which figure in story books, or by the single crucial, and never-in-after-agesexcept-under-license-and-special-certificate-to-be-repeated, experiment which some members of a certain Royal Commission supposed to be the only kind of experiment needed in scientific inquiries.

A perusal of Harvey's own statements makes it plain, it seems to me, that having gained his knowledge of the anatomy of the heart and of the current hypotheses of its function from his Italian masters, he reasoned thus:-First, that the cardiac valves must be intended for such physiological service as their construction would indicate. He believed that every part of this human microcosm has a meaning; that it is by no chance result of blind forces that an organ is adapted to its end. This great postulate is necessary for scientific progress. If the difficulties of physiology, whether normal or morbid, seem so intricate and insuperable that we are tempted to doubt whether the riddle after all has an answer, we must again and again fall back on the faith of Harvey and of Newton, of Boyle and of Linnæus. The great doctrine of natural selection has thrown wonderful light upon the methods by which the results that we see have been reached, but has not impaired the excellence of those results nor their evidence of beneficent design.

Belief then that the body and all its parts is a machine constructed for certain uses, that everything in Nature has a reason and an end-this was Harvey's postulate when he argued out the functions of the heart and vessels from their anatomical construction.

Harvey's second method was that of actual experiment. On this point he leaves us in no doubt. His second chapter is headed, "Ex vivorum dissectione qualis sit cordis motus," and in the introductory chapter which precedes this, he says:

"Tandem majori indies et disquisitione et diligentia usus, multa frequenter et varia animalia viva introspiciendo, multis observationibus collatis et rem attigisse et ex hoc labyrintho me extricatum evasisse, simulque motum et usum cordis et arteriarum quæ desiderabam comperta habuere me existimabam."

Many of his vivisections were not strictly speaking experiments, but observations—inspection of the living heart and arteries-others were experiments in the modern and restricted use of the word. These were Harvey's methods, as they must be the methods of all natural science. First, observation; next, reflection; then experiment. "Don't think; try," was Hunter's advice to Jenner; an advice that is often needed by an acute inquiring genius like his; still more often by sheer idleness, that will never bring its fancies to the test of fact.1

Experiments without hypotheses are often fruitless, but hypotheses which are never brought to the test of experiment are positively mischievous.

How far have the Fellows of this College obeyed Harvey's precept and followed his example in searching out the secrets of nature by way of experiment." We must, I fear, confess that after the brilliant period of the seventeenth century (in some respects the greatest of our history and certainly the most fruitful in great men) experimental science made slow and uncertain progress, so that between Harvey and Newton, Hook and Grew, Mayow and Boyle on the one hand, and Cavendish, Black and Priestley, Hunter and Hewson on the other, there was a long period of stagnation or even retrogression. Hypotheses and dogmas, misapplied mathematics, imperfect chemistry, and an affected literary style (made more conventional by the practice of writing in a foreign language better fitted for rhetoric than science) contributed to make the eighteenth century comparatively barren, in so far as science generally, and physiology and medicine in particular, are concerned.

The way of experiment," in the strict sense of the word, has been hitherto most successfully applied to normal physiology. The successors of Harvey were not Sydenham, Radcliffe, Arbuthnot, Garth, Meade, Freind and Heberden, but Lower, Mayow, Hales, Vierordt, Ludwig and Chauveau. Pathology as an experimental science is still in its infancy, but the infancy is that of Hercules, and bids fair to strangle such dire pests as anthrax, cholera, tetanus and hydrophobia.

Before quitting this part of my subject, I would fain correct a popular misconception that Harvey was a neglected geniusthat his contemporaries, his professional brethren, and in particular this ancient College, refused to listen to his new notions. ridiculed his discoveries, and spoiled his practice. Whether as his fame grew his practice diminished, we cannot tell. If so, his patients were the losers. What Harvey and every honest man cares for, is not popular applause, but the confidence and esteem of his comrades; and this he deserved and received. It was as lecturer at this College that he propounded

1 Ea autem vera esse vel falsa. Sensus nos facere debet certiores, non Ratio; aurora non mentis agitatio. Second Epistle to Riolanus, p. 13 (College edition).

his discoveries; it was here that he found his disciples and his friends. Here he was urged to take the presidential chair; and here his statue was erected, five years before his death, with the inscription, " Viro monumentis suis immortali." It would have been a poor compliment to his elaborate demonstrations, and unworthy of a liberal profession, if so startling a revolution as Harvey proposed had been accepted without inquiry. It was considered, it was discussed, and, without haste but without timidity, it was at last accepted-the very way in which Darwin's theory was received and criticised, and finally adopted by Lyell and by Hooker. Let then no scientific impostor or medical charlatan quote Harvey to console him under merited censure.

II. Of Harvey's writings, the second, and by far the longer treatise, is that upon Generation. This formed the subject of a valuable criticism in the Harveian Lecture by the late Sir Arthur Farre. It is full of interest and contains many observations that remain true for all times, many acute criticisms, and a few broad and true generalisations, such as the famous dictum "Omnia animalia ex ovo progigni." Perhaps, however, what most strikes the reader of this treatise is the learning of the writer. He is familiar with his Aristotle,

and quotes from Fabricius and other writers with much greater freedom than in the succinct and almost sententious treatise, "De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis." Some would have us believe that here, as in other cases, erudition was a clog upon genius. This question has been often discussed, and it has even been maintained that he is most likely to search out "the secrets of Nature by way of experiment who comes fresh to the task with his faculties unexhausted by prolonged reading, and his judgment uninfluenced by the discoveries of others. This, however, is surely a delusion. Harvey could not have discovered the circulation of the blood had he not been taught all that was previously known of anatomy. True, no progress can be made by mere assimilation of previous knowledge. There must be intelligent curiosity, an observant eye, and intellectual insight.

"Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,"

and few things are more deplorable than to see talent and industry occupied in fruitless researches, partially rediscovering what is already fully known, or stubbornly toiling along a road which has long ago been known to lead nowhither, We must then instruct our students to the utmost of our power. Whether they will add to knowledge we cannot tell, but at least they shall not hinder its growth by their ignorance. The strong intellect will absorb and digest all that we put before it, and will be the better fitted for independent research. The less powerful will at least be kept from false discoveries, and will form (what genius itself requires) a competent and appreciative audience. Even the dullest scholars will be respectable from their learning, and if they cannot make discoveries themselves, can at least enjoy the delight of intelligently admiring the discoveries of others.

III. There is, however, a third phase of Harvey's intellectual work of which, unfortunately, the records have for the most part perished, and which has not, perhaps, been duly appreciated. What I believe Harvey contributed, or would, but for adverse fate, have contributed to medicine as distinct from physiology, was a systematic study of morbid anatomy. In the following passage he speaks of the great benefit that would ensue from the regular observation of the structural changes produced by disease :

"Sicut enim sanorum et boni habitûs corporum dissectio plurimum ad philosophiam et rectam physiologiam facit, ita corporum morbosorum et cachecticorum inspectio potissimum ad pathologiam philosophicam."

Now this was a new notion. It was not uncommon for the body to be opened after death, especially in the case of great personages, either for the purpose of embalming or for discovering (as it was supposed) the fact of poison or other foul play; and occasionally a physician would obtain permission for a like inspection when something unusual in the symptoms had excited a laudable curiosity to ascertain their cause. But the records of such inspections in the seventeenth century by Bartolinus, or Tulpius, or Bonetus, or, in our own country, by Mayerne, or Bate, or Morton, are fragmentary, their object being limited to the individual case. There was no attempt to search out the secrets of nature in disease by a systematic observation of the state of the organs after death, nor was there for more than a century after Harvey's death. Morgagni in Italy; the French

anatomists of the early part of this century, Corvisart and Laennec, Broussais and Cruveilhier; in Germany Meckel and Rokitansky, and in England Baillie, Abercrombie, Carswell and Bright-these were the founders of scientific pathology on a sure anatomical basis almost within living memory.

Not only had Harvey the prescience to recommend the study of morbid anatomy for itself, but he had himself carried it out by recording a large number of dissections, or, as we should now call them, inspections, of diseased bodies. Unfortunately most of these post-mortem reports, with his observations on the generation of insects, and other manuscripts were destroyed, or irrevocably dispersed, when his house in London was searched while he was with the King at Oxford. If the records of these inspections had been published, may we not asssume that Harvey's great authority would have set the fashion, and that the systematic study of morbid anatomy would have begun a century and a half earlier than it did? And think what this would have meant. With the exception of a few shrewd ob. servations, a few admirable descriptions, and here and there a brilliant discovery, such as the origin and prevention of lead colic and of scurvy and the introduction of vaccination, it may be said that medicine made no important progress between the time of Harvey and that of Laennec. The very notion of diagnosis in our modern sense of the word depends upon morbid anatomy. The older physicians seldom attempted to determine the seat of an ailment. Disease was looked upon not as a condition depending upon disordered physiological functions, but as something external, attacking a previously healthy person, disturbing, and, if not expelled by art, finally destroying him ; while any structural changes which were found after death were regarded rather as the effects than the causes of the symptoms during life.

Now, the ambition of every intelligent student-and in medicine we are life-long students-is to fix upon the most objective, certain, and important of the symptoms of a patient, to follow out this clue, to determine the organ affected and the nature of the affection, so that in his mind's eye the tissues become transparent and he sees the narrow orifice for the blood. stream and the labouring muscle behind it; or the constricted loop of intestine with violent peristalsis above and paralysis below, the blood-current stopped and congestion passing hour by hour into gangrene; or, the spinal cord with grey induration of a definite region, and the motors, sensory and trophic changes which physiologically ensue.

Sometimes this minute search to fix upon the locality and exact nature of a lesion has been ridiculed; and we are asked what benefit to the patient such knowledge when attained can bring. We answer, that in medicine, as in every other practical art, progress depends upon knowledge, and knowledge must be pursued for its own sake, without continually looking about for its practical application.

Harvey's great discovery (which we physicians rightly cele brate this day) was a strictly physiological discovery, and had little influence upon the healing art until the invention of auscultation. So also Dubois Reymond's investigation of the electrical properties of muscle and nerve was purely scientific, but we use the results thus obtained every day in the diagnosis of disease, in its successful treatment, and in the scarcely less important demonstration of the falsehoods by which the name of electricity is misused for purposes of gain.

It is true that Bernard's discoveries of the diabetic puncture and of the digestive function of the pancreas have not yet received their practical application. He was right when he said, "Nous venons les mains vides, mais la bouche pleine d'esperances légitimes"—but he should have spoken for himself alone.

The experiments on blood-pressure begun by Hales, and carried to a successful issue in our own time by Ludwig, have already led to knowledge which we use every day by the bedside, and which only needs the discovery of a better method of measuring blood-pressure during life, to become one of our foremost and most practical aids in treatment.

Again, we can most of us remember using very imperfect physiological knowledge to fix, more or less successfully, the locality of an organic lesion in the brain. I also remember such attempts being described as a mere scientific game, which could only be won after the player was beaten, since when the accuracy of diagnosis was established, its object was already lost; but who would say this now, when purely physiological

research and purely diagnostic success have led to one of the most brilliant achievements of practical medicine, the operative treatment of organic diseases of the brain?

It has often been questioned whether the study of morbid anatomy has not withdrawn attention from morbid physiology; and, again, whether the time employed upon pathological researches would not have been better spent in directly theraputical inquiry. To both these questions I take leave to answer, No. Anatomy must precede physiology, whether in the normal or the diseased state. The humoral physiology of the ancients did infinite mischief (mischief not yet exhausted), because it lacked the sound basis of anatomy; and experimental pathology, necessary and important as it is, and valuable as even its first endeavours have proved, was impossible without previous knowledge of the anatomy and histology of disease. As to therapeutics, 1 hold that for the successful cure of a patient it is far better that his physician should have a thorough and extensive knowledge of morbid anatomy, than that he should be acquainted with all the baths and waters, the hotels and lodginghouses throughout the world, or familiar with the barbarous names and pretended virtues of all the advertised nostrums that deface the fair English fields from London to Oxford. The public suppose that it is their business to know what is the matter, and the doctor's to find the remedy; if so, our art would be confined to learning the name of the patient's disorder by letter, post. card, or telegram, and looking up in an index of remedies the twenty or thirty drugs which are "good" for that particular complaint. We know that the real difficulty is to ascertain the nature and origin of our patient's disorder; when that is done, the treatment in most cases is obvious, and in many effectual; when it is not done, our treatment is vacillating, and either futile or mischievous. We have already ample means at our disposal for influencing almost every organ of the body. A new tool is occasionally offered us which deserves proving, but what we want far more is knowledge how to use the tools that we have. Treatment without diagnosis, besides its inefficiency, brings us for the time unpleasantly near to the charlatan who, whatever title he may assume, is always therapeutical and never pathological. Rational, bold, and effectual treatment, whether preventive or curative, must always depend upon accurate diagnosis and sound pathology, and the power of diagnosis depends upon that systematic inspection of the bodies of diseased persons which was recommended and practised by Harvey.

"Ad hanc inspectionem, cum Heraclito apud Aristotelem, in casam furnariani (sic dicam) introire si vultis, accedite: nam neque hic Du desunt immortales. Maximusque omnipotens Pater in minimis et conspectior vilioribus quandoque est.

Suffer me, then, Mr. President and Fellows of this College, to obey the instructions of the founder of this lecture, by exhorting my hearers, and especially those Fellows who are junior to myself, to emulate, according to the varied talents entrusted to each, the example of Harvey in these three particulars :

(1) In investigation by experiment, whether by pathology or physiology.

We have now difficulties unknown to Harvey in carrying out this duty, for duty it certainly is, incumbent upon all who have the opportunity and the necessary training. The countless experiments on living animals which were carried out during the 17th century in all civilised countries-in Italy, Holland, Denmark, France, Germany, and England-bore a rich fruit of physiological knowledge. If the anatomy of the human body was thoroughly ascertained by the great men of the 16th century, by Vesalius, Sylvius, and their successors, it is no less true that to the 17th century is due the discovery of the elements of physiology. The action of the heart and the circulation of the blood, the absorption of chyle by the lacteals and thoracic duct, the mechanism of respiration and some knowledge of its chemical effects, the function of secretion by glands, the minute structure of the eye and ear, and of the reproductive apparatus, and a knowledge-imperfect, but true as far as it went-of the functions of the brain and nerves, these were the achievements of the 17th century due to Harvey, Glisson, Willis, and Mayow, among our own countrymen, and to Pecquet, Malpighi, Leuwenhoeck, De Graaf, Swammerdam, Aselli, Redi, and Bartolinus. In all this brilliant advance of knowledge, experiment upon the lower animals was the method used, and the method is as indispensable now.

Anyone conversant with a single branch of natural science is aware that experiment, as well as observation, is necessary. Who would expect discoveries in physics, or in chemistry, without laboratories and experiments? Do not botanists in vestigate the functions of plants by dissection, by microscopic and chemical investigation, and by experiment? Have we not this very year celebrated the important results of fifty years' experimental researches into the life and growth of plants by Lawes and Gilbert? And is it not obvious that the same necessary well tried and indispensable method of inquiry must be continued in the case of animals? Happily the same experimental science has discovered the means of abolishing the tribute of suffering which the brute creation paid in the hands of Harvey and Hales, of Haller, Magendie, and Sir Charles Bell. By means of chloroform and other anaesthetics, and by means of the antiseptic methods which we owe to Sir Joseph Lister, the subjects of experiment are spared the pain and shock of an operation, and the pain which used to follow an operation. In fact, almost the only experiments upon the lower animals which involve distress are those which are most immediately and directly useful to ourselves and to them; inoculations, namely, with a view to reproduce diseases, and the direct therapeutical testing of drugs. Cruelty is utterly repugnant to our calling; and it seems absurd that men, who will with just confidence entrust themselves and the lives of those nearest to them to our protection and care, should yet so far distrust us as to shackle attempts to improve our knowledge and our power by cumbersome and ridiculous restrictions. Let us hope that on the one hand increasing humanity and gentler manners will extend compassion for the lowest of God's creatures from the educated classes of England and America until it permeates all ranks and all nations; and that on the other full liberty will be given to the prosecution of researches, laborious and thankless in themselves, but of the utmost value for the relief and prevention of disease in man and brute alike. May I also express a hope that those who administer our laws will take heart of grace, and in this, as in other matters, try whether Englishmen do not prefer the conscientious maintenance of a statesman's own judgment before a time-serving submission to ignorant clamour.

(2) In the second place, I would exhort my brethren, and especially the members of this College, to cultivate learning. Harvey went to study in Italy, then the nursery of science as well as of art, and he was familiar with the writings of Plato and Aristotle and Virgil, as well as with those of his immediate predecessors, Fabricius and Columbus. So in that golden time which comes to most of us, between taking the academica) degree and becoming immersed in the daily duties of hospital life, I strongly advise a visit to one of the German universities, or to Paris, to acquire the key to the two languages in which the best modern books are written; and to widen the mind by see. ing the aspect of science and affairs from a continental standpoint. It is lamentable that there is so little professional intercourse between the students of one of our London schools and the teachers of another. The laudable energy which has made each of them complete, and well-equipped colleges has had this drawback, that at the present day the attention of a diligent student is more confined to the teaching and practice of his own school than it was sixty or seventy years ago. The narrowness and pre judice bred by this isolation may be corrected by a visit to the famous sister universities of Edinburgh or Dublin; for their complete removal no prescription is so efficient as a prolonged stay in continental laboratories and hospitals. But even such a broad and liberal education, even familiarity with the daily advances of medical science recorded in periodicals and archives and year-books, or transmitted by telegraph to the wondering readers of the daily newspapers, is not all that is needful to make a learned physician. We know well the difference between reading of an experiment, or even seeing it performed, and doing it with our own hands. We know the difference between studying a pathological atlas, or even a cabinet of histological slides, and seeing and handling morbid tissues and making sections for oneself. So also is there all the difference between learning the present conclusions as they stand recorded in the

Let us hope that the University of London when reconstituted by the labours of the Royal Commission, which is now preparing its report to the Crown, may provide by the regulations of its medical faculty for more community of teaching and learning among students of medicine in this city.