Address to the Sub-section of physiology, British Association, Birmingham, 1865 / delivered by the president, Henry W. Acland.

  • Acland, Henry W. (Henry Wentworth), 1815-1900.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the Sub-section of physiology, British Association, Birmingham, 1865 / delivered by the president, Henry W. Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    undivided attention. This also is only time under limitation. It is true so far as this, that division of labour is as necessary for the perfection of this portion of science as of others 5 and further, that some parts of biology are become so com- plicated and so extensive as to demand for original work the whole powers of any man of ordinary calibre. But it would be quite as just if we were to lay it down broadly, “ There has been no period when it was as necessary for the progress of biology as now it is, that its relations with medicine should be closely maintained.” Neither position would be wholly true, or, therefore, wholly safe. It may not bo amiss to occupy a short time at the outset of our detailed labours with a brief consideration of the real scope of the pursuit in which we are engaged, and of the means which we possess for attaining our objects. I crave your indulgence if my analytical description fall short of your distinct conceptions or your more sanguine aspirations. The objects of biological study are, unquestionably, as in most other sciences. First, simply to ascertain what are the facts in a certain department of Nature, with no regard to the practical consequences which can be deducible therefrom; and Secondly, but less directly, to discover the laws and devise the rules which are of various degrees of importance and value for the practical exigencies of mankind,—just as mathematical and physical astronomers investigate the facts which are necessary for the construction of the Ephemeris, and make it to be a work of equal value for the pure astronomer and for the practical navigator. But some of the facts which physiology investigates, and the laws which it seeks to discover, happen to be of cogent consequence to all men equally,—to the thoughtful and the cultivated, because they have the tendency to illuminate the most hidden recesses of our mental constitutions, the most obscure traces of our origin, and our various correlations to other beings, animate and inanimate ; to the mere “ hewers of wood and drawers of water ” among men, because it seeks to ascertain in the most precise manner the conditions of physical existence, to point out the work that can, and that cannot, be done upon such and such an amount of sustenance. In short, it seeks to define the exigencies of the human body in respect of all the external circumstances in which it is ordinarily placed, in respect also of all other physical agents that can act upon, or be acted upon by it; together with the internal chemical and physical alterations to which these several circumstances cau, directly or indirectly, give rise. It has to learn also the limits of toleration within which the body is confined by these external agents, and the way in which these limits are regulated—as the laws of toleration of climate, of heat, of food, of various noxious agents, and many other particulars, of which the catalogue would be greater than that of the ships of Homer. Every person, therefore, whether he knows it or not—the Statesman, who has to consider the sustentation of the people—the Religious man (that is, every one who believes in a moral government of the world, or hopes for a future state, and who has opinions on the history or origin of the Human Race)—the Animal man, who prides himself on his strength, or whose strength is to him for a fortune— the Mother, rich or poor, who yearns by night and by day for the healthy growth of her tender offspring—the Physician or Philanthropist, who desires to avert or to relieve diseases among communities or individuals of men—each and all of these are alike really interested in the steady progress of the most abstruse philosophical speculations of the physiologist, as certainly as of the commoner rules of a healthy life, which are to be safely deduced from them. In reference therefore to the opinion which was just now adverted to, I think that Biology is to be extricated from the hands of physicians onlv in a limited sense. No persons have so many grounds for advancing It as they. The physician, abs- tractedly considered, combines all the characters to which I have alluded. He is, in respect of the health of the people, a Statesman; as a Man, like others, a Reli- gious man; not less than others, Father and Husband; as much as any, a Working- man ; by education, more or less, a Man of Science. In short, abstractedly con- sidered,! say it is his special duty at least to advocate and, if lie can, to promote the advance of physiological knowledge unfettered and free,— 1st. As a pure Science. 2nd. As the basis of the Medical Art.