The Hunterian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on February 14th, 1859 / by John Bishop.

  • Bishop, John.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on February 14th, 1859 / by John Bishop. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    logy. This becomes apparent in every discovery made either in the mechanical, the chemical, or the electrical functions of animal life. If there be not an alliance of the physiological with the physical sciences, how does it happen that the mathematician examines the eye and ear, and the physiologist the nature of light and sound, in order to explain the senses of sight and of hearing If the mathematician experiences great difficulty in dealing with the problems presented in the dyn¬ amics of animal physiology, the chemist finds him¬ self no less embarrassed with the solution of those chemical changes which are incessantly taking place in the functions of vegetable and animal life. It is admitted that chemical science cannot reach the explanation of the mechanical and chemical pro¬ cesses in living organs until the laws of molecular forces have been determined. On this point Pro¬ fessor Hopkins observes that Molecular actions present to the mathematician problems of a higher order than any that have been solved in gravitation,^’ and that “ the problems of the vital actions present infinitely greater difficulties still.” Such then are the conditions for the process and the prospects of a final solution of this problem. The ideas which have prevailed in all historical time of the hyper-chemical nature of organic changes have materially operated in retarding the successful cultivation of physiological and pathological chem¬ istry ; and it is only within the last ten years that