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.

    7/8 (page 7)
    proper management it easily might, in experiments and reports bearing on the physiological action of preventive or remedial agents, sometimes perhaps sug- gested and aided by the British Association, what might not be the fruit to science and to the public and private health ? _ I have been assuming, wliat no one here will question, that the basis of Medi- cine is knowledge of biological laws. _ It is so, but only in the wide sense assigned at the outset to biological pursuits; viz. the study of the laws of decay as well as of growth—growth and decay of species as well as of individuals. But I must guard myself by saying that this does not include the whole basis of medicine. Physio- logical experiment is necessary to obtain the laws of action on healthy bodies, but alone it does not explain the laws of action on perverted organic structures or functions, as is seen in the common instance of the different effect of opium on a man in health and on a man in disease. Clinical observation is of course beyond physiological research, and must, from its far more limited field, follow rather than precede. It aims at applying, in due course, all safe and established results of pre- vious physiological inquiry; and adds the deductions from investigations exclu- sively its own. Much remains to be done in comparing the effects of agents, and the causes of those effects on man and on the inferior animals respectively. The knowledge which exists on these subjects has become, I need not say, both extensive and precise. But new problems are constantly arising from the discovery of new Toxic agents. Even new diseases occur, as is well instanced by Cholera, implying either new conditions of circumstances external to man, or new combinations of the internal conditions of man. Accordingly fresh experiments are perpetually required to meet the new pro- blems ; and it has become the interest and almost the duty of States to specially train and to coimtenance skilled experts familiar with the most recent methods and researches in these directions, with a view not only to fresh scientific know- ledge, but to the great practical results that may be obtained. It is sufficient to refer as illustrations to Bernard’s experiments, such as those on the Woorara—to the question of Physiological Antidotes—and to the more precise notions of the Physiological causation and mode of action of Fever Poison. These you will observe, though apparently what are called medical questions, are not less physiological questions proper, of vast importance to mankind. A few more words in another aspect, and I will not venture further to trouble the Section, or delay our detailed work, which is ample enough. I have implied, what is sufficiently obvious, that Physiology proper (I exclude such questions as the evolution hypothesis, which cannot be proved in this way) has become uncom- promisingly precise, and that nothing will stand which does not bear the crucial tests of observation, and where possible of experiment. But the experiments can- not in the present advanced state of Physics and of Chemistry be devised by ordi- nary men, nor even executed by them. Consequently every year old statements concerning the effects of agents so called Physiological and Therapeutical, are becoming of less value, and new ones of more.' Most of us, who have passed the prime of life, must be content to learn from the more favoured in years. They who are young must be willing to be patient and laborious, if they would add any- thing of permanent value to physiological knowledge. The day in which hundreds of organic compounds are synthetically produced, and the microscope offers for mechanical analysis a clearly defining magnifying power of 5000 linear, is not one when rough work of hand, or conjecture unsupported by proof as to the chemical changes which go on within organic structures, will stand. What Life is will long, perhaps alwajs evade our human ken ; what is done during1 Life, what can be done consistently with Life, and wliat produces death among living things, every year makes more sure and more plain ; every year makes the search more exciting, the reward more great, the reasons for admiration of the order of things on the whole more conclusive, and the admiration and awe more profound. At the outset it was said that only very qualified assent could be given to the remark of a philosophical writer, that it is a prime necessity for Biology that it s ou d be separated from Medicine. It has been my endeavour to show the amount of truth which belongs respectively to the remark and to the dissent.