An address to the graduates of the Medical Department of the St. Louis University : delivered March 1, 1853 / by M.M. Pallen.

  • Pallen, M. M. (Moses Montrose), 1810-1876.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the graduates of the Medical Department of the St. Louis University : delivered March 1, 1853 / by M.M. Pallen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    .-.lively held in the heavens thousands of yours ago, than is the comparative anatomist, guid i by the light of certain correspondences and harmonies in the BtoimaJ organisation, from the mere fragment of a bone, to reconstrucl the entire skeleton, clothe it with muscles and tegu- mentary covering, replace it- various organs, trace its habitt and econo- my, with the certainty of a cotetnporary Buffon or Cuvier, and almost, as it were, endow it with life—the mastodon or megatherium, rising at his call from their rof ky tombs, seali 'I by the hand of unnumbered cen- turies. A geologist, in the words of a poet and physician, hands ,,, ],;s ],;, i friend a particle broken from a fossil tooth, and requires the nature, si/.e, habits, fond, date of the beh. moth, the megal- osaurus, the paleedtherram that chewed opon it. The physiologist grinds a speck of it down to a transiucenl lamina, saturates this shaving with the lighl from a little concave mirror, screws his inexorable lenses to their focus, and extorts a truth which nature had buried beneath the deluge, and blotted with the night of uncounted ages. The second great branch of medical science is physiology. All im- provements io our knowledge of the functions of parts. How directly from our knowledge of their structure, and it consequently follows that the advances in physiology have kept a corresponding pace with the discoveries in anatomy. Had our r a confined to man alone, in his superior and perfect development, it is probable that physi- ology would yet be far behind its present advanced state : bat su< h has not been the case, the physiologist having, with commendable and patient zeal, compared the various organs of tho different . aninmls. with the view of interpreting their functions. Thus, aided by nature's analysis, he has been enabled, from the more simple form and action, characteristic of the inferior species, to ascend - p to the solu- tion of most of the difficult and wonderful pi man organism. The uses of nearly every organ of the body has been quite accurately ascertained. The strength and solidity, combined with grace and symmetry, of the bony frame-work, with its l.\ cylinders and dome, are all well known. Whilst representing the gen- eral outline of the body, it also affords attachment to the moving powers, and protection to delicate and important organs. The whole system of animal mechanics is thoroughly appreciated and understood. The mus- cular force has been calculated. We have noted the constant and i ebbingtide of reparation and waste we have followed the pregrei the food, through all the various changes in digestion, the nutrient parti. (des mingling with the blood to become incorporated with the tissues, and after having fulfilled their temporary but important nii.-sion. are dislodged llV tne circulatory torrent, to be finally eliminated from the body as effete, by their appropriate emunctoriee. The beautiful round of* the circulation, with the red and purple hue of the blood, whether farmed by the atmosphere in the lungs, or undergoing different chemical and >ital changes in the distant capillaries, the systole and diastole of its